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(Paper presented at a conference at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, on: 'Disability Issues: Global Solutions and the Role of Community Based Rehabilitation'. March 5-6, 1998)
'I see humanity as a family that has hardly met'
Theodore Zeldin
Introduction and Summary
'Doing development' in Afghanistan
A large CBR programme in Afghanistan
Cultural values in Afghanistan
Disability, local values, and CBR in
Afghanistan
Conclusions
Acknowledgements and References
Afghanistan is suffering from nearly two decades of war. Even before the war it did not score high on indicators of social development. Now it occupies a spot almost at the bottom of the global league table. The primary factor affecting any attempt to do sustainable development work in Afghanistan is the war. However, to many development professionals working for the UN and foreign NGOs cultural factors also appear to present obstacles to development. These factors are a mixture of values that derive from culture, ethnicity, and religion, and tend to be lumped together as 'cultural values'. While foreign agencies agree in theory that 'the core concern of sustainability is that the initiative be soundly rooted in the context and the consciousness of the environment in which it operates'1, and therefore that 'local culture' should be respected, they often find local cultural values in Afghanistan conflict with their own values, and indeed their own ethics. Dialogue to establish a common understanding is often abbreviated or absent. The discussion about cultural values is often regarded as too sensitive to even embark on. The result is that 'development' remains largely an activity initiated by foreigners, which Afghans receive but which they themselves do not initiate, let alone control.
This paper assumes a view of development that is much more than material benefits, and is the sum of people's own aspirations, efforts, and learning towards bettering themselves materially, socially, intellectually, and spiritually. Based on lessons learned in a large Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme run under the auspices of UNDP/UNOPS and implemented by NGOs, the paper examines how far the programme is relevant to local values. It argues that a CBR programme, through cadres of field workers trained in detailed social and community work, can engage communities in a dialogue that seeks understanding with local values and can therefore lead to a sustainable development process that goes beyond the field of disability.
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14/07/1999