A donor delegation of the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan (STFA), which funds the ABADEI programme, visited Mazar-i-Sharif city in Balkh province on June 8, 2022. The mission’s objective was to observe the progress of projects being implemented by ABADEI’s Participating UN Organizations (PUNOs), and to meet with project beneficiaries.

The UN-Habitat team in Mazar-i-sharif welcomed the delegation and arranged a meeting which was attended by 130 people including PUNO representatives, Community Development Councils (CDCs), and beneficiaries of Cash for Work projects. During the meeting, CDC members presented community action plans and explained the application of the Peoples’ Process in the development of the plans. They also described the community’s roles in identification, designing and planning of community projects to be funded by grants under ABADEI. STFA donors praised the CDC members for their contributions and cooperation in ABADEI projects in Mazar-e-Sharif city.

UN-Habitat’s Cash for Work project beneficiaries explained how the projects had enabled them to start small businesses to support their families amid the humanitarian and economic crisis. They also noted that, apart from providing job opportunities, the Cash for Work projects had been effective in making the city clean, green, and safe for the residents.

Fazil Rahman, who started a small business with the money he earned from a Cash for Work project, said “I thank UN-Habitat office and the ABADEI programme for giving me this opportunity to work and feed my family by myself”.

Sayed Ayoub, another programme beneficiary who has also started a small business from money earned in a Cash for Work project said “I am thankful to the UN-Habitat office. Through the Cash for Work project, I could feed nine members of my family. These kinds of projects should be expanded because they are beneficial to people like us”

The UN-Habitat team also took the donor mission to the Rabia-e-Balkhi Women’s Market, where UN-Habitat plans to repair the market`s washrooms, dig a deep well and provide solar energy to rehabilitate the market and revitalize economic activities as part of the ABADEI programme.

At the end of the visit, the donor mission thanked UN-Habitat for successful implementation of ABADEI activities in Mazar-i-Sharif city.