Sunday afternoon session with Ian Hunter, United Nations Development Program in Afghanistan.

The first half of this presentation featured the country of Afghanistan and its development since it was declared a democracy in 2001. When questioned, the attendees identified terms such as Terrorists, fanatics, extreamists, intolerance, poppy flowers, dope, etc.... Mentioned too was an observation that in 1967, the country of Afghanistan was considered "progressive" in that education and tolerance was widely prized, men and women had access to education and the culture and "civiliz

Sunday Afternoon with Ian Holland - United Nations Development Programs in Afghanistan:

ation" was a important goal in every Afghani's life. A lot has changed in 30+ years due to war and conflict. What now exists in Afghanistan is a broken state and numerous development agencies are in competition trying to improve things.

Ian mentioned that there was no unified or coordinated efforts among relief/development work. "Everyone is in it for themselves and refuse to link with others". Ian mentioned that there is massive amounts of money and resources going into the country of Afghanistan, many agencies there to accept it but projects effectiveness is sorely lacking. People are distrustful of these events and recognize that things may have been better in the recent past.

The second half of Ian's presentation involved analyzing what Spiritual Principles could be used and identified with development projects. In a Baha'i publication regarding the spiritual principles and development, there were identified 5 core spiritual principles:

1. Equality of Men and Women
2. Equity and Justice
3. Independent Investigation for Truth
4. Trustworthiness and ????
5. Unity and Diversity

Importance was placed on the placement of indicators needed to be applied as a way to assess the success of the integration of these spiritual principles to the project. For example Trustworthiness could be indicated by the amount of accountability and assessed with an Audit. Equality of Men and Women could be assessed with analysis on numbers of men and women involved in the project, the recepients of the project and the effect that the project has on the population. Independent Investigation of Truth can be assesssed by looking at how projects handle continuous improvement of project, handle consultation of processes and brainstorm ideas and trends.

JohnK