In Afghanistan the protection of environment and ecological issues is not been recognized as a primary concern by the Afghan government, private sectors and civil society organizations. Due to the effects of air and water pollution as well as unsafe environment, every year hundreds of people in Afghanistan die or are harmed. Infect, every citizen can notice the negative impact of the environmental problems in his daily life.
Addressing this long term issue, in May 2013, a group of committed Afghan youths established the Afghanistan Young Greens (AYG) as a non-political, non- governmental and non- profit, Afghan organization to advocate for Ecological Sustainability, Grassroots Democracy and Civil Peace and Women Empowerment in Afghanistan.
The mission of AYG is empowering the Afghan youths to find out the root cause of challenges towards youths’ development and participation in economic, social, cultural and political decision making of the country through assessments, surveys and researches; as well as doing evidence based advocacy for promotion and capacity development of young women and men for their empowerment with an overall goal of promoting the culture of green thinking; and advocacy for appropriate and sustainable use of natural resources in Afghanistan.
- Please describe your organization’s activities, experience and achievements in sustainable development issues and processes, including in relation to the 2030 Agenda/ SDGs and other related processes. (Max 500 words) *
Since its establishment in 2013 to now, AYG is working through the following strategies to contribute in realization of SDG in Afghanistan till 2030: 1) Advocacy for ecological sustainability and use appropriate use of natural resources:
- Awareness Raising programs/Campaigns
- Advocacy for clean and green environment
- Build the capacity of youths in order to influence at policy level
- Establishing of Greens Network at National and international level
2) Advocacy for good governance, Peacebuilding, social justice and grassroots democracy:
- Policy Level
- Implementation level
- And community level
3) Education/Capacity Building:
- Research and Resource Center for ecological Issues
- Public Awareness raising on election process with focus on youths and women
- Digital and Physical library on ecological, Social and political issues
- Academic Trainings, Publications and Access to Information
- And vocational training for women
From 2013 to now, AYG programs impacted on changed live of thousands of Afghanistan citizens in 10 provinces, i.e.: More than 20,000 community members and their families were sensitised on environmental, ecological and sustainable use of natural resources, several policies changed and improved for mainstreaming and inclusion of environmental, ecological issues based on sustainable development approaches, more than 100 youth groups were created and received capacity development programmes, AYG has effectively contributed in establishment of the Civil Society – Environmental Natural Resources Monitoring Network (CS-ENRMN). Currently AYG is implementing a two years project which is funded by Small Grant Program (SGP) of Global Environment Facility (GEF) and managed by UNDP. The project has been started in March 2017 and will be continued till March 2019. The project is being implemented in Kol-e-Hashmat Khan (an environmentally project area for wetland which is which is situated in the south-eastern outskirt of Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. Through this project AYG has built the capacity of 20 students of Environmental Science Faculty of Kabul University on research methodologies, AYG conducted three researches: 1) analyzing the community concerns and its consequences on the conservation of Kol-e-Hashmat Khan lake; and to find out environmental friendly and sustainable income generating activities in the community, 2) To find out effective approaches and sustainable solutions for wildlife protection in the lake, 3) To conduct educational survey on variety of plants, especially native plant forests/ gardening plants and other income generating plants which existed in the past and they have matching nature with the climate of the field. Also, AYG raised the awareness of more than 2000 community members and school students of the area on protection of the wetland, conservation and environmental issues. AYG established and register the community based and lead council which works for conservation of the wetland and protection of the environment of the area. The last but not the least, AYG in coordination with community members has succeed to build a mechanism for waste management of the area which at the same support to the income generation for the households and keep the area clean and free of the wastes.
Please provide a brief personal biography, including information about areas of expertise related to sustainable development. If available, please include a link to your CV (Max 300 words)
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Mohammad Shafaq is founder of Afghanistan Young Greens (AYG). Mohammad has a decade of working experience in youth and women empowerment, and advocacy for ecological sustainability based on sustainable development approaches. He is an ongoing student of MBA at Dunya University of Afghanistan and a Bachelor degree in German Language and literature from Kabul University of Afghanistan. The empowerment of youths, sustainable development of his country was his major objectives during the last ten years. While working as Executive of Director of a national leading- nonprofit organization (Afghanistan Young Greens) in Kabul, Afghanistan, he has been a co-founder of the Disability Rights Watch Afghanistan (a national wide disability network in Afghanistan). Mohammad has been part of a valuable work by changing the lives of thousands of Afghans including youths, women and Persons with Disabilities through implementing more than 20 job creation, socio-economic development and educational/capacity development projects. He has also been part of a positive change in the sector of environment and natural resources by his engagement as advocate for ecological sustainability and sustainable use of natural resources such as influencing the Afghan government for inclusion of sustainable development issues into their policies, programs and policies. Mohammad represented the civil society of Afghanistan in many national and international conferences and events. Mohammad has worked as Managing Director, Head of programs, Project manager and project coordinator in different civil society organizations to implement the advocacy and sustainable development projects in Afghanistan. Through implementation of different advocacy and developmental projects, Mohammad has developed skills in capacity building, leadership development, advocacy and project management. The long term goal of Mohammad is to contribute in sustainable development of Afghanistan by empowerment of youths and women, sustainability of ecological, natural resources and environmental issues.
Please elaborate on your engagement with and/or representation of grassroots constituency. (Max 200 words) *
Afghanistan Young Greens (AYG) is a grassroots organization, managed by youths. Youths have played a vital rule in awareness rising and advocacy for protection of environment and peaceful & sustainable use of natural resources in Afghanistan. Lack of management and advocacy capacity/ skills is a main challenge for youths, therefore I initiated to establish the AYG, and later on provided capacity building programs for youths. Prior to the trainings, a capacity need assessment was conducted at the level of 30 youths on a sampling basis. The aim of this assessment was to evaluate the management capacity and advocacy skills and challenges of the youths. The assessment was completed on August 2013 with a clear result on the average capacity level of youths. Considering the main gaps, a five-full-day training curriculum was developed with high focus on advocacy, leadership and management of environmental issues. Afterwards, I had delivered trainings to more than 100 youths of Kabul and 10 other provinces of Afghanistan.