Academic literature on the topic 'Housing policy Afghanistan Kabul'

<p>In recent architectural and environmental research, principles of sustainability and affordability with respect to economic, environmental and social policies have been widely discussed on a worldwide scale. Urban housing planning can play a very important role in achieving sustainable growth and development by integrating ‘sustainable development principles’ into urban planning strategies, policies, programs and projects. In addition, affordability is at the heart of households’ efforts to improve their housing situation. It has been widely recognized that employment, income generation and access to housing are highly interrelated internationally. Housing affordability has become one of the dominant research topics in recent years. However, few studies have been undertaken to test the compatibility between affordable housing and sustainable housing. Sustainable and affordable development of housing, a basic unit of human settlement, is also a crucial component of social development in one community. It plays an important role in achieving sustainable development. The concept of shelter differs from individual to individual depending on culture, tradition, profession and way of living. Besides being a basic necessity, it is also a source of identity that has a significant effect on the overall psychological well being of the inhabitants. Sustainable-affordable habitat can be described as a way of developing and maintaining a living environment supporting human health (both physical and psychological), satisfying shelter needs, and protecting and preserving nature for future generations. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for defining housing problems from the perspective of the support of beneficiaries, and it seeks to analyze the effectiveness of Afghan national development policies in facilitating sustainable-affordable habitat across the country. The framework shows the interdependency of different aspects of sustainability in the process of housing development. It also sets out strategies and identifies policy initiatives required to realize the goal of sustainable-affordable habitat in Kabul. The principles developed in this paper can be generally applied and adopted in Afghanistan, a country that is less developed economically.<br />A fundamental understanding of these two issues is necessary to develop successful examples of this form of accommodation. Because of three decades of socioeconomic and political instability in Afghanistan, the country does not have a national housing policy. This paper tries to create the foundation for an Afghan national housing policy. This research reveals that the majority of Kabul residents are low- or medium-income earners that cannot afford housing produced under market conditions. This paper aims to identify suitable built forms for housing that is both affordable and environmentally sustainable. A series of case studies were conducted to investigate some of the best international forms to be adopted in practices at the national scale. The research is conducted qualitatively, and the required data is acquired from a site survey of Kabul, in addition to data from new World Bank and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Master Plans. The result was the development of a framework that enables the assessment of the overall performance of various types of housing development. There is very little evidence that the present approach of housing provision linked to the vagaries of market forces has provided affordable housing, especially for government employees and low-income citizens. There is a need to incorporate social housing into a policy to assist people who cannot provide their own housing needs.</p>

Afghanistan suffers from four decades of war, caused a massive migration of the rural population to the cities. Kabul was originally designed for 1,5 million people, where now 5 million people live. The importation of modern western styles housing for rapid reconstruction reveals apparent cultural conflict and significant environmental footprint. The new constructive cultures for sustainable reconstruction should necessary consider the use of local materials combined with modern technologies. Earthen architecture underlies the embodiment of Afghanistan architecture. The aim of this research is to revisit traditional afghan earthen construction with the tools of industrial modernity. Three soils of the Kabul region were first characterized. Then, sun-dried mud brick and compressive earth block, with and without stabilization have been prepared and tested in the laboratory to develop the most suitable earth construction element which is cost effective and easily available compared to the imported modern products.

Since 1979, Iran's objectives in Afghanistan have changed as Afghanistan's domestic landscape changed. Still, Iran has consistently sought to see a stable and independent Afghanistan, with Herat as a buffer zone and with a Tehran-friendly government in Kabul, a government that reflects the rich ethnic diversity of the country. Toward those and other goals, Iran has created “spheres of influence” inside Afghanistan. During the Soviet occupation (1979-88), Iran created an “ideological sphere of influence” by empowering the Shi'ites. Iran then created a “political sphere of influence” by unifying the Dari/Persian-speaking minorities, who ascended to power. Iranian policies added fuel to the ferocious civil war in the 1990s. Astonishingly slow to recognize the threat posed by the Taliban, Iran helped create a “sphere of resistance” to counter the “Kabul-Islamabad-Riyadh” axis by supporting the Northern Alliance. Since the liberation of Afghanistan, Iran has also established an “economic sphere of influence” by engaging in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Today, Iran's goals are to pressure the Afghan government to distance itself from Washington, and for Iran to become the hub for the transit of goods and services between the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, Central Asia, India, and China. While Iran has been guilty of extremism and adventurism in some critical aspects of its foreign policy, its overall Afghan policy has contributed more to moderation and stability than to extremism and instability.

This article analyses the trajectory that Sino-Afghan relations have acquired since 2001. In doing so it undertakes an analysis of China’s key interests in the commercial, security and political arena in Afghanistan and the policies adopted by Beijing to secure these interests. The analysis particularly takes into account four factors which have left a crucial imprint in moulding the contours of Beijing’s engagement with Kabul, namely, the Indo-Pak equation, implications of a large US military presence in the region, consequences of growing drug proliferation and its linkages with pan-Islamist groups which in turn could potentially stir trouble in Xinjiang and adversely impact upon China’s desire to expand and secure its commercial interests in the region. The article analyses the impact that events in Afghanistan are likely to have on China’s own internal challenges in Xinjiang as also its larger interests in South Asia and argues that given Beijing’s growing international profile and the increasingly transnational nature of the events unfolding in Afghanistan, China will need to recalibrate its current strategy.

Transboundary water sharing policy between Pakistan and Afghanistan along with emerging issues over the Transboundary Kabul River have been discussed incorporating long-term hydrological trend analysis, water quality issues and temporal changes in land cover/land use. The annual (1977–2015) mean river flow of 26.32 billion (109) cubic metres (BCM) with a range of 13.77 to 42.2 BCM and standard deviation of 6.026 BCM revealed no significant trend in annual inflow data of the Kabul River. Afghanistan planned developments in the basin were analysed in the light of reduction in the transboundary flow. Faecal coliforms, pH (7.90 to 8.06), Escherichia coli and other water quality parameters were found to be within permissible limits, however, dissolved oxygen was just above the permissible limits to sustain aquatic life. Water was found unsuitable for drinking while suitable for agriculture and aquatic life. Remote sensing data used for temporal change detection showed an increase in built-up-areas and cultivated areas along Kabul River inside Pakistan by 50 and 47%, respectively. Significant changes were observed at two locations in the river course. Insights of emerging Kabul River issues and a way forward have been discussed which could serve as the basis for formulation of adaption strategies leading to a ‘Kabul River Water Treaty’.

India’s long history of relations with Afghanistan dates back to the time of the Mauryans. It became even stronger after India’s independence in 1947. Since 1947, India has always maintained the policy to support whosoever comes to power in Kabul, but in 1996, there was a shift from that policy as the Taliban, a radical Islamist group, captured power. Pakistan has always been paranoid about India–Afghanistan relations as it never wanted hostile neighbours on both sides of its borders. Its urge for a friendly government in Kabul got satiated when the Taliban came to power, with its support. New Delhi did not recognize the Taliban government and, instead, shunned all diplomatic relations with Kabul. It was only after the Taliban regime was ousted through the US intervention that India rejuvenated its relations with Kabul. However, even after 19 years of intervention, the Taliban remained a potent force, and now as the USA plans to withdraw from Afghanistan, it is trying to negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban. Currently, India too is trying to engage in dialogues with the Taliban, which again marks a shift from its earlier strategy. This study analyzes India’s experiences with the Taliban and shift in its policy from the pre-9/11 period (1996–2001) to the post-9/11 period (2001–early 2019).

Background: Children in Afghanistan are at greater risk of malnutrition. Over 50% of children were suffering from malnutrition in Afghanistan in 2012, which has a long-lasting physical, mental, social, and impact on children. Study purpose: The purpose of this research study was to explore the association between parents knowledge, attitudes, and practices about complementary feeding and stunting in children in Afghanistan. The predictor variables were mothers knowledge, attitudes, and practices about complementary feeding and the outcome variable was stunting status of children aged 6 to 24 months. Research methods:A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted with randomly selected participants who were living in Kabul, Afghanistan. Logistic regressionmodels were used to analysethe data. Research setting: This research was conducted in 6 hospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan. Study participants: The study participants included 306 mothers who had children aged between 6-24 months. Results: Mothers knowledge, attitudes, and practices were significant predictors of stunting in children, χ2 (9, N = 306) = 45.33, p < .001 χ2 (9, N = 306) = 26.71, p < .01 and χ2 (9, N = 306) = 56.97, p <.001.Mothers who did not practice responsive feeding were 7.1 times more likely to have stunted children than mothers who practiced responsive feeding. Social and policy implications: The social and policy implications of this research study include reviewing nutrition policies, investing in nutrition programs, and increasing public education and awareness in promoting appropriate complementary infant feeding practices in Afghanistan.

The results of the study of the new declassified documents of Russian archives lead to the conclusion that under the influence of “world politics” there were all directions of Afghanistan’s foreign policy. The history of Soviet-Afghan relations on the eve of the Second World War convincingly proves the fact that in the relations of Afghanistan with the Great Powers of that time there were no spheres of cooperation that would not be used by foreign states in the struggle for the “Afghan bridgehead”. A striking proof of this is the attempt of the Soviet government in the 1930s to coordinate the issue of grazing of Afghan herds on Turkmen pastures with a whole range of measures aimed at strengthening the positions of Germany and Japan in Afghanistan. Soviet diplomacy repeatedly asked Kabul about the pastoral convention to speed up the signing of the necessary Soviet treaties with Afghanistan. In 1936 the question of concluding a grazing convention was repeatedly raised during the negotiations on the extension of the Kabul Pact of 1931 (the Neutrality and Mutual Non-Aggression Treaty of 1931) and the conclusion of a general trade agreement with Afghanistan, through which the USSR sought to economically supplant German and Japanese goods from the market of Northern Afghanistan.

Planning a city is a systematic process that includes time, space, and groups of people who must communicate. However, due to security problems in such war-ravaged countries as Afghanistan, the traditional forms of public participation in the planning process are untenable. In particular, due to gathering space difficulties and culture issues in Afghanistan, women and religious minorities are restricted from joining male-dominated powerholders’ face-to-face meetings which are nearly always held in fixed places called masjids (religious buildings). Furthermore, conducting such discussions with human facilitation biases the generation of citizen decisions that stimulates an atmosphere of confrontation, causing another decision problem for urban policy-making institutions. Therefore, it is critical to find approaches that not only securely revolutionize participative processes but also provide meaningful and equal public consultation to support interactions among stakeholders to solve their shared problems together. Toward this end, we propose a joint research program, namely, crowd-based communicative and deliberative e-planning (CCDP), a blended approach, which is a mixture of using an artificial-intelligence-led technology, decision-support system called D-Agree and experimental participatory planning in Kabul, Afghanistan. For the sake of real-world implementation, Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan) and Kabul Municipality (Afghanistan) have formed a novel developed and developing world partnership by using our proposed methodology as an emerging-deliberation mechanism to reframe public participation in urban planning processes. In the proposed program, Kabul municipality agreed to use our methodology when Kabul city needs to make a plan with people. This digital field study presents the first practical example of using online decision support systems in the context of the neighborhood functions of Gozars, which are Kabul’s social and spatial urban units. The main objective was to harness the wisdom of the crowd to innovative suggestions for helping policymakers making strategic development plans for Gozars using open call ideas, and for responding to equal participation and consultation needs, specifically for women and minorities. This article presents valuable insights into the benefits of this combined approach as blended experience for societies and cities that are suffering long-term distress. This initiative has influenced other local Afghan governments, including the cities of Kandahar and Herat as well as the country’s central government’s ministry of urban planning and land, which has officially expressed its intention to collaborate with us.

The increasing trend of air pollution in Kabul listed this city, one of the most polluted in the world. The air pollution in Kabul contrasting to other polluted cities in the world is seasonal pollution. According to some reports during the winter season as the demand for heating increases, the majority part of the households and industries in cities use biomass and low-quality fossil fuels to meet their energy demand. The increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions due to the use of conventional energy resources, especially raw coal considered a serious threat to people's lives in Kabul. Due to the abundance of solar energy radiation and the simplicity of technologies, Solar Heating (SH) installation on the rooftop of houses is one of the most prominent solutions to minimize environmental impacts and air pollution related diseases in Kabul. The primary objective of this paper is to assess the potential of GHG reduction with the use of SH technologies in houses. Additionally, the impact of SH installation on non-renewable energy consumption and electricity bill reduction is deliberated in this paper as well. This study is supported by a public web-based survey, which is designed for municipal planned and nonplanned areas in Kabul city. The results of the study indicate, due to poor reliability of electric energy supply, most of the population in Kabul city rely on polluted energy sources to meet their primary demand. The study also points; housing sector in Kabul has the biggest portion of energy consumption, which is mainly used for heating purposes. Employing solar thermal technologies in households can significantly decline the utilization of coal and firewood, which in turn leads to a substantial reduction in GHG emissions. This study could be a good reference for the policymakers and investors in the field of green energy in Afghanistan.

Research Question: What factors at individual, health service provision and system levels are influencing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service uptake? Rationale: In many Afghan ethnic groups, girls and women face heavier risks of disease and infection than men. Their diminished economic and social status compromises their ability to select healthier life strategies and access to sexual reproductive health (SRH) services. The Afghan government estimates a high maternal mortality ratio (327/100,000 live births) in Afghanistan. However, due to inadequate reliability of data, the true maternal mortality and morbidity ratio remain unknown. A deeper understanding of the policy and social factors that impact on poor SRH service uptake would help the development of applicable and successful SRH Policy and frame applicable and appropriate approaches for sustainable SRH service uptake in Afghanistan. Method: It is a qualitative policy analysis using the ‘Broader Framework of Thinking’ by Walt and Gilson (1994) and a variety of data collection methods. Data was collected from 450 participants (Patients 223, Family members 72, Health service providers 63, Governmental staff 31, Coordinating organisation staff 17, Religious leaders 11, Health-promoters 13, Psychosocial counsellors 20) by conducting interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, life narratives, document reviews and an audit of medical records. Findings: My results show the key factors underlying women’s poor health were a lack of knowledge about SRH, poor communication, and a lack of honour and trust both between individuals and within the health system. In addition, research findings highlighted that depression, multi-pregnancies, childbirth complications, anemia, malnutrition, sexually transmitted infections and interpersonal violence were routine for women. It clearly shows gaps within SRH Policy design and implementation and health service provision. These gaps are associated with social factors, which negatively impact on access and utilisation of proper SRH services Conclusions and Recommendations: This research analysed national reproductive health Policy (NRHP) and explored the impact of multifaceted social factors on SRH service uptake. In complex health systems recommending solutions require distinguishing between types of problems and a specific time-scale to improve SRH service uptake.

This chapter shows how India’s Afghanistan policy witnessed an 180-degree shift in April 1991. Far from cutting contact, Indian policymakers — dominated by conciliators — officially recognised the Mujahideen government despite the latter being dependent on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This shift was momentous given India’s traditional mistrust of the Afghan Islamists. The fall of Kabul to the Taliban complicated this conciliatory approach. Contrary to the arguments of existing literature, there was an undercurrent in New Delhi to engage with the Taliban. Having dealt with the Mujahideen, the conciliators were confident of finding a sympathetic audience among senior Taliban leadership, which, they argued, would protect Indian interests in Afghanistan and were not being remote-controlled by Pakistan. The partisans, however, with support from Iran and Russia, marginalized the conciliators and successfully pushed India towards backing the anti-Taliban United Front.