Effectiveness of the EU Support to Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Afghanistan

Over the past 20 years, due to the efforts of the European Union and other donors, there has been an undeniable progress in the field of women's rights in Afghan society. The National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan 2008-2020 and most recently the National Strategy for Combating Violence Against Women have been developed with the aim of improving the situation of Afghan women and ensuring gender equality with several support programs. Some of the international aid organizations in this area promote the largest women's empowerment programs in Afghanistan since the establishment of USAID, GIZ / Role of Law, UN, UNICEF. The focus of this research is on the effectiveness of the EU’s assistance to gender equality and women empowerment in Afghanistan. The purpose of the research is to contribute to better understanding of the EU’s presence and support in a very complex environment with a number of challenges in the field of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms. The main research questions are: What are the main characteristics of the EU’s assistance to promoting women rights in Afghanistan? What factors influence the effectiveness of the EU’s support to the gender equality and women empowerment in Afghanistan? It is claimed that due to the complexity of the environment and many difficult security, cultural and other challenges, the EU’s assistance has been only partially effective. The methodology of the research will rely on the qualitative analysis of the extensive secondary literature, official EU publications, studies of international organizations, independent CSOs and think-tanks, as well as various scientific articles. This thesis has demonstrated that the major factors undermining the effectiveness of the EU’s support to Afghanistan have been the corruption, the lack of capacities of government bodies, the insufficient capacities of local civil society organizations, lack of donor coordination, as well as security threats. Due to these challenges, EU’s assistance has been only partially effective