Just Future

Fragility, conflict and violence are the most significant obstacles to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the most fragile and conflict-affected country like Afghanistan, insecurity and injustice is chronic and widespread due to weak, unresponsive institutions that do not meet the needs and claims of security and justice seekers, with adverse impact on the dignity, prosperity, and survival of all Afghans. The prevalence of insecurity and injustice also undermines people’s perception of the efficacy and legitimacy of the state, inducing the weak social contract at the heart of fragility. Concurrently, closed and repressive governance system underpinned by patriarchal and gerontocratic norms and practices are excluding the majority of people, mainly women and youth, from political decision-making arrangements at local and national governance and formal and informal peace processes. These exclusionary arrangements further erode the willingness of people to trust and cooperate with the state, with detrimental effects on security and justice—and the social contract itself. In response to these complex challenges Just Future Alliance (JFA) came together to support civil society actors in fragile contexts through a global strategic partnership to advocate for peaceful, secure and inclusive societies. The Alliance co-created the Just Future programme to achieve the following long-term goal:

GOAL

The goal of this project is to improve accessibility, responsiveness and accountability of security and justice institutions, and promote inclusivity in political decision-making and peace processes. Mobilization of civil society for collective action and advocacy will contribute to acceleration and localization of SDG16 in in 6 fragile countries, including Afghanistan.

OBJECTIVE:

The project goal will be achieved by the following objectives:

Strengthen the capacity of security providers to enable them to deal with all kinds of cases, including SGBV cases.
Raise awareness among the local communities on their rights and mobilize them to mitigate SGBV.
To promote transparency and accountability within the state justice institutions to avoid human rights violations, during and after trials
To strengthen and provide support to local CSOs that interact with justice sector institutions

ACTIVITIES

In Afghanistan Just Future project will be implemented in eight provinces of Afghanistan including Balkh, Bamyan, Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Nangarhar, Paktia). In the first year of the programme, the main objective is to create a strong foundation for the implementation of the Just Future programme; therefore, there will be complete focus on establishing an alliance between consortium partners as well as with research/network partners and national level partners, on programme governance, conflict sensitive activity planning, and preparing the basis for robust programme monitoring and learning. Activities that will be implemented during 2021 are based on the following outcomes:

PO1: Security providers are more responsive, accountable and people-centered, and take action enabling the most excluded constituencies to enjoy safety, protection and enforcement of the law.

To achieve this outcome, the consortium partners will train and advice security providers on (S)GBV case management and review responsiveness of security providers at provincial and national level. The partners will mobilize informal leaders (jirgas, shuras, khateebs, sheikhs, tribal leaders, etc.) to demand ANP-ALP local service provision, common goal-setting, mutual accountability, and a social contract between communities and police. Partners will provide training to Afghan National Police (ANP) to deal with (S)GBV cases and will conduct public awareness campaigns on the role of police in addressing SGBV cases in order to mobilize communities to address these issues. The aim is to establish local monitoring mechanisms that community people, local shura, women and youth can use to monitor the commitments of security providers for enhanced effectiveness. Towards the end of the year exchange programmes will be organized between the community monitors and the government to provide them with an opportunity to share their best practices.

PO2: Justice providers are more accessible, responsive and accountable, and take action enabling the most excluded constituencies, to defend and enforce their rights, redress grievances and resolve disputes through diverse pathways to justice;

To achieve this outcome, the consortium partners will provide technical support, accompaniment to formal and informal justice providers in order to enable them to increase and formalize coordination and coherence in all targeted province. Customary and informal justice providers will coordinate with state justice providers, and avoid human rights violations. CSO, community (esp. women, youth) will monitor and report on justice providers coordination and coherence. In the meantime, the partners will support legal empowerment of most excluded constituencies, and help them to apply within formal justice institutions for dispute resolution. During the first year of the project, TLO will take the lead in establishing an evidence based advocacy messaging, resuming of the dialogues with justice authorities and creating and maintaining the link with communities by raising awareness on formal justice systems. Complaint mechanisms will be monitored and a Joint Justice Platform will be created to improve coordination between rural Afghan justice actors and also between formal and informal justice providers that are predominant within the targeted provinces.

PO3: Political decision-making, especially in regards to peace processes, is more inclusive of and accountable to the most excluded constituencies, which are able to influence and negotiate collectively with duty-bearers and power-holders in a context of adequate civic space and respect for human rights

To achieve this outcome the consortium partners will generate evidence of perspectives of women and youth on needs and opportunities to bolster social peace through a research. Research will be followed by the capacity building training of CSOs, CBOs to demand participation of women and youth in political decision-making at all levels. Partners will collaborate with MOWA, MOIC, provincial departments to strengthen, sustain institutional support for women, youth participation. Religious leaders will be approached in the process, asking them to speak on women’s rights in their Friday speeches, to gather public support for women inclusion. Towards the end of the year, the partners will lobby and advocate with the relevant stakeholders, such as the HCNR and SMP, as well as the international community active in the peace process in Afghanistan (including the US embassy, SRAR team, UN Agencies, NATO and EU, among others for women inclusion.