What I Did in (& have done for) Afghanistan

I was in Afghanistan from March 1 to the end of August, 2007, under contract from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and seconded to the National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP), part of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). My title was Communications and Reporting Advisor. After than, until 2021, I continued to work remotely, pro bono, with people in the country that are working for MRRD or local NGOs.

Here's what I did in-country in Afghanistan:

• Rapidly edited and rewrote all proposals, donor program reports, meeting reports, field reports and presentations for all the divisions of NABDP, which included community development (development of local governance structures & guidance in local people identifying local development priorities), rural economic development, implementation of rural infrastructure projects (water supply and sanitation projects, construction of schools, irrigation and flood control, construction and maintenance of public facilities, energy projects, construction of health clinics, and rehabilitation of roads and construction of culverts and bridges), institutional development and gender mainstreaming. In addition to writing, this took regularly meeting with and observing office meetings by NABDP staff. This activity, along with the second bullet, took up around 60% of my entire work time in Kabul.
  
  
• Wrote, edited and rewrote press releases, web pages and video scripts for Afghan MRRD staff in the ministry's communications department.
  
  
• Co-authored a Guide for Facilitating the Preparation of Women-Focused Development Plans in Afghanistan with the NABDP gender specialist, to be used by all divisions of NABDP.
  
  
• Developed a series of online photo-sharing albums, via Flickr, for NABDP, sharing photos that had been taken over the previous two years by staff of all of the different initiatives of NABDP, many of which had never been shared outside the program before, and leading to the photos being used in a variety of UNDP and MRRD online and in-print publications, including the UNDP annual report for Afghanistan for 2007. Also taught Afghan staff in the NABDP communications office to update the account with new photos, write descriptions and tag photos with keywords.
  
  
• Developed How to take photos in a culturally-sensitive manner, particularly with regard to respect for local customs regarding women, and to meet various needs, e.g. to show female participation. This resource was developed in 2007, for Afghan staff working at NABDP, by my own initiative, upon seeing the archive of photos that Afghan NABDP engineers and program staff had taken in the field.
  
  
• Developed a presentation for Afghan women on public speaking. This resource was developed in 2007, per the request of Afghan female staff working at NABDP, who were being asked more and more to make presentations to colleagues.
  
  
• Developed a comprehensive list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting to donors, the media & general public. I developed this with a colleague in Afghanistan, to help the local staff at the government ministry where we worked know what information donors and UN agencies regularly asked for, and what we anticipated they might start asking for; what subjects the media regularly asked about or reported on, and what we anticipated they might start asking about or reporting on; and what information could be used for evaluation purposes later.
  
  
• Visited Panshir and Kandahar to see NABDP projects in-person, observed a District Development Assembly (DDP) in process, talked with Canadian military representatives regarding provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), took photos and interviewed local staff for program updates for donors.
  
  
• Created a 12-page summary for donors of the results of an Emergency Winterization Assistance Project that took place in 2006, and created a 17-page summary for donors regarding the emergency Embankment of Oxus (Amu River) from the previous year, which covered 15 districts in 4 provinces (Balkh, Jawzjan, Kunduz and Takhar) and which protected agricultural land, government buildings and houses and directly benefited almost 400,000 people. Both of these tasks required interviewing MRRD Afghan staff and reviewing program documents written by others, many of whom were no longer with MRRD.
  
  
• Updated all NABDP pages on the MRRD web site, more than doubling the amount of content on the site for the program, overseeing the translation of this new material into Dari and Pashto, and training Afghan counterpart to do this upon my departure.
  
  
• Recruited and hired an Afghan counterpart for the communications department.
  
  
• Served on interview panels in for two UNDP recruitment drives for other departments for Afghan staff.
  
  
• Attended the UN Volunteers retreat; though I have never served as a UN Volunteer myself, I worked for four years at UNV headquarters, and was invited to participate because of my close association with the UNV program.
  
  
• Created a handover note for my international replacement, something I did not have when I took over this position.
  
  

Here's what I did after leaving Afghanistan in 2007, pro bono, for Afghan staff in-country, until August 2021:

• Edited major reports written by the Afghan NABDP staff person I hired back in 2007, to ensure clarity and correct grammar, and to offer suggestions for additional information. Also advised her regarding communications strategies for MRRD's Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Program (Ru-WatSIP).
  
  
• Advised the Afghan NABDP staff person I hired during her graduate studies in Kabul and Australia.
  
  
• Edited the communications strategy for the Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility (CARD-F) for an Afghan colleague, and developed a Twitter strategy for CARD-F.
  

My time in Afghanistan, as well as Egypt and Jordan, lead me to develop:

Also see:

• Index of all of my resources for working in development -- human, community, institutional and environmental (with information about aid, relief and humanitarian efforts as well).
  
  
• How to Pursue a Career with the United Nations or Other International Humanitarian or Development Organizations, Including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
  
  
• Reality Check: Volunteering Abroad / Internationally
  
  
• Recommendations for UN & UNDP in Ukraine to use Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Other Social Media to Promote Reconciliation, Social Inclusion, & Peace-Building in Ukraine (PDF).
  This is a draft document I submitted to UNDP Ukraine just before I left Kyiv in October 2014, having completed my term there as a "Surge" Communications Advisor. This draft document offers considerations and recommendations for social media messaging that promotes reconciliation, social inclusion, and peace-building in Ukraine. It provides ideas for messaging related to promoting tolerance, respect and reconciliation in the country, and messaging to counter bigotry, prejudice, inequality, misperceptions and misconceptions about a particular group of people or different people among Ukrainians as a whole.
  
  
• My various producted developmed to build public sector staff communications capacities in countries where I've served..
  
  
• Lessons from onlinevolunteering.org
  Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005, including support materials for those using the service to host online volunteers.
  
  
• Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs in the Developing World, a guide I developed a decade ago and regularly update until October 2015. Requesting NGOs have been based primarily in Africa, Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
  
  
• Starting a Nonprofit or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The laws and procedures for starting a nonprofit organization, an NGO, a charity or a foundation vary from country to country. The laws and procedures are never exactly the same. This page offers the general advice that is applicable to any country, but you will still have to go through country-specific requirements, which are NOT detailed on this page but there is advice on where to find them).
  
  
• Vetting Organizations in Other Countries: A resource that can help you evaluate volunteer-placement organizations that charge you for your placement as a volunteer, as well as for people interested in partnering or supporting an organization abroad but wanting to know it's a credible organization, that it's not some sort of scam, or an 'organization' of just one person.
  
  
• Hosting International Volunteers: More and more local organizations in developing countries are turning to local expertise, rather than international volunteers, to support their efforts. However, the need for international volunteers remains, and will for many, many years to come. This resource provides tips for local organization in a developing countries interested in gaining to international volunteers.

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

available for purchase as a paperback & an ebook

Completely revised and updated, & includes lots more advice about microvolunteering!
Published January 2014.