Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

covery, and peaceful development of the country.It provides young women and men withenhanced capacities, education, and recreationand employment opportunities.The Joint National Youth Program containsfour main components:• Strengthening the capacity of the Governmentto respond to the needs of the youthof the country;• Promoting non-formal education, increasingawareness and developing skills (literacy,leadership, strategic planning, conflictresolution, peace-building, etc.) in youngpeople so to provide better quality of lifeand livelihood opportunities;• Engaging youth in governance, developmentand social-political processes at local,district, municipal, provincial and nationallevel, ensuring the participation of youngwomen and men in democracy and advocacy;and• Promoting voluntary efforts for peace anddevelopment and establishing a youth volunteercorps for the country. For detail informationrefer to volume 2The most important projects to support thesub-sector strategies included the development,maintenance and expansion of the databasethat documents the collection of artifacts heldby the Ministry; and the passage of the newMedia legislation and its implementation aswell as the implementation of the Joint NationalYouth Program.SOCIAL PROTECTIONCurrent situationImproving social protection is vital to reducingpoverty and increasing the livelihood of theAfghan people, particularly the poor and mostvulnerable. This sector strategy is critical to theGovernment’s ongoing poverty reduction efforts.The programs highlighted below form akey part Government’s approach to achievingthis; alleviating the impacts of poverty and improvingthe welfare of the country.The Afghan Constitution defines the role ofsocial protection and obliges the Governmentto take necessary measures to support the mostvulnerable. Since 2001 progress has beenachieved in number of areas: cash transferbenefits have been established (martyr’s familiesand disabled) as the main instrument ofsocial support for the victims of the war; regularsupport to orphanages has been providedfrom the Core Budget; the MoLSAMD has establisheddepartments in all provinces andstrengthened its capacity for targeting and cooperatingwith the NGOs and the donors. Intotal, some 2.5 million people have been coveredwith some type of public arrangement forsocial protection.The pension system has been strengthened:Although highly dependent on budgettransfers, the basic pension scheme for civilservants and military personal has been established.The number of pensions paid has steadilyincreased from around 10,000 to more than50,000 (in 2006). The MoLSAMD’s PensionDepartment receives technical assistance forfurther improvements and the MoF has intensifiedits effort on collecting pension contributions.The capacity of ANDMA to coordinate disasterpreparedness and response has improved aswell. Basic risk vulnerability studies have beeneither completed or initiated. The links withsub-national structures have been established.The Emergency Budget for Disastrous Situationshas been established under the President’sauthority and a number of interventionsfor risk mitigation have been made.Despite the progress in the strengthening ofsocial protection, important challenges andconstraints remain, including security issuesand low mobilization of the domestic revenues.A further constraint is limited coordinationwithin the Government and with the donors,which leads to duplication of efforts and inefficienttargeting.The ANDS Risk and Vulnerability Assessmentsindicate that the Afghan people are vulnerableto number of risks:Security and economic risks: The continuedinsecurity has led to the loss of lives and forcedpeople to migrate. Afghanistan is one of themost heavily land-mined countries. In 2006,landmines killed or injured an average of 61people per month. The latest survey (NRVAEconomical and Social Development 123