Enhancing Security and Social Sustainability, Strengthening Capabilities: The case of Persons with Disability in Afghanistan

As a result of the various conflicts over the last three decades in Afghanistan, a large number of persons with disabilities (PwDs) are currently living in Kabul and in the various provinces. The Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled has the mandate to develop a programme to find sustainable solutions to re-integrate these people within daily life. Stakeholders working in the field of disability, within the National Disability Commission, a new inter-ministerial body of the Government, will define this program, the National Disability Strategy. This initiative aims at reducing their vulnerability to risks and enhancing their capabilities in the long term. The main problem is that disability does not have similar consequences and is not perceived in the same way according to gender differences, traditional attitudes and religious motives. Our paper aims to present a holistic perspective to take into consideration a specific issue (disability) according to a given socio-cultural context (Afghanistan) so that the policies and programmes designed to help vulnerable groups take appropriate forms according to the distress and the specific handicaps of these people, with the objective of reducing their vulnerability and improving the sense of personal security, self-esteem and belief in their own capacity to take their life into their own hands. Strengthening their capabilities through adequate policies is, of course, the main means to reach such an objective, but these have to be functional within a context where social opportunities are extremely restrained