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Urgency in Mainstreaming Climate Change in National and Sectoral

Development Strategies in Afghanistan
Dr. Khalid Naseemi, National Environmental Protection Agency, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Abstract
According to Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) approximately 10 million Afghans,
around 42 percent of the population, live below the poverty line and do not meet their daily food and non-
food requirements. Poverty headcount rates vary from around 10 percent to more than 70 percent, with
poverty more severe in the Northeast, Central Highlands and parts of the Southeast. Entire provinces like
Daikundi, Badakhshan, Zabul and Paktika represent large pockets of poverty. The Afghanistan
Participatory Poverty Assessment (APPPA) found that the key determinants of poverty were: (i) a weak
assets base, (ii) ineffective institutions: including the disabling economic environment; weak regional
governance, service delivery and corruption; weak social protection programming; social inequalities; and
(iii) vulnerability to: conflict; natural disasters; decreasing rule of law; increasing basic costs; increasing
population; food insecurity; winterization; and (iv) non-diverse livelihoods.

Studies conducted by many international agencies have given a common message “climate change
threatens to undo years of work to tackle poverty in developing countries”. The poor countries need
strong and urgent actions to address the impacts of climate change alongside efforts to boost economic
development and reduce poverty. And it is also the common view of all that poverty reduction efforts
should always be linked to the desired adaptation and mitigation measures to the impacts of climate
change. This demands all governments in developing and least developed countries and aid agencies
supporting them should put climate change at the forefront of work to tackle poverty and deal with its
impacts.

Although, there are very limited studies in climate change and its impact on Afghanistan, the available
research shows that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is facing climate change threats at unprecedented
spatial and temporal scales. In Afghanistan, climate change effects include: increase desertification
(predicted loss of 75% of arable land), more intense and acute droughts (predicted 10-15 year drought
cycles), increase in the melting of permanent glaciers (especially the Hindu-Kush, one of Asia’s greatest
freshwater reservoirs), increased variability in hydrological cycles, and erratic cold waves.

These climate change impacts will be likely be exacerbated in the years to come in line with the predicted
climate change trends in Afghanistan. These environmental changes induced by climate change ultimately
endanger the viability of rural livelihoods, frequently decimating entire families and communities in rural
Afghanistan. Climate change effects are also expected to intensify conflicts over natural resource control
and management, due to loss in ecosystem productivity. These effects are and will significantly affect
food security in Afghanistan and the welfare of its people.

In order to reduce Afghanistan’s climate change vulnerabilities, the Afghanistan Government is

increasing its institutional capacity to develop and implement (i) climate change adaptation policies and
development plans, (ii) improved climate change adaption and mitigation practices and (iii) climate
change knowledge sharing. This paper will thus further highlight the urgency of mainstreaming climate
change into national and sectoral development policies and strategies.