Introduction
The recent establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which is the foundation for a free, independent and democratic society after thirty years of political and social unrest, is a milestone in the history of the country. In the past decade consecutive governments have provided Afghanistan’s young women and men with unprecedented opportunities for development in areas such as health, education, employment and political participation.
However, not all young women and men have benefited from the recently achieved progress and much more needs to be done to meet the needs of Afghanistan’s youth.
But three decades of civil unrest deprived a generation of this country from accessing basic services. Moreover, many of the small scale and short-term programs initiated by the GIRoA and non-governmental actors were not sustainable and did not respond to the growing needs of the country’s young people.
On the other hand, 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.
Therefore, a group of Afghan youths realized that investment in young people would lead to sustainable and more equitable development of all young women and men, which will result the sustainable development of the whole country.
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.
AYG is a non-political, non- governmental and non– profit, Afghan’s Youth organization to advocate and lobby with all the relevant governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to systematically address and mainstream the youths and environmental issues into their policies, programs, and to design and implement short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies and programs for promotion of environmental issues and for growth and expansion of talents, skills and potential of young women and men in economic, social, cultural and political areas of the country.
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.
Now, AYG is active through its Head Quarter office in Kabul and two sub-offices in Bamyan and Daikundi provinces. AYG is working in collaboration of wide national and international networks, e.g. AYG is an active member of Afghan Women’s Network (AWN), Civil Society- Environment Natural Resources Monitoring Network (CS-ENRMN), local communities, female and male youths in Kabul as well as in the different provinces of Afghanistan.
At the international level, AYG is member of Global Young Greens (GYG). Since AYG is member of Global Young Greens (GYG), it will also follow the Global Greens charter in implementation of its programs/activities.
