05 April 2005

(U.S.-Afghan Women's Council cements business relations)

By Phil Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- American businesses, especially American businesswomen, are working closely with the U.S. government to promote the interests of Afghan women, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky says.

Briefing reporters in Washington April 4 on the sixth meeting of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council that took place in Kabul March 29-31, Dobriansky, who co-chairs the council with the Afghan Ministers of Women’s Affairs and Foreign Affairs, said the private sector provides a dimension of assistance to Afghan women that the public sector does not.

"Many of the government projects are large scale and they might be more impersonal, like road building, but many of the projects that involve the private sector build ties in terms of personal relationships," Dobriansky said.

The under secretary said that, for instance, a U.S. company has arranged for 14 Afghan businesswomen to develop business plans with support from the Thunderbird School of International Management in Arizona, one of the highest rated graduate schools in the United States for international business.

The 14 Afghan businesswomen will be mentored during the two coming years to implement their business plans that involve a wide range of projects, such as promoting tourism, targeting the consumer sector and partnering with hotels.

"In a hotel establishment, they set up a facility where if people want information about how to get around Kabul, they could do it.  They're thinking very creatively about business opportunities that could add value," Dobriansky said.

The under secretary said the Afghan women who visited Thunderbird will have e-mail ties with their CEO (chief executive officer) mentors, who will guide them with their projects.

One of the most innovative ideas for entrepreneurship involves helping young artists at an "incredible school" for orphans and abandoned children in to sell their paintings, she said.

"We have several ideas about how to help them get their artwork out, like, for example, the creation of a calendar that would feature their work," she said.

Dobriansky said other private-public sector projects involve an initiative to help Afghan women weave carpets and ship them to the United States for sale; a $40,000 grant from Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, for micro-enterprise loans for Afghan women; assistance from the Loma Linda Hospital in California to a hospital in Kabul; and funding from AOL-Time Warner company for a women's resource center in Parwan Province.  The under secretary said she expects other companies to fund more women's resource centers in Afghanistan.

President Bush's wife, Laura, attended the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council meeting with Dobriansky.  During her stay in Afghanistan, Mrs. Bush announced that the United States will contribute $17.7 million for the construction of an American University in Kabul and $3.5 million for an international school in Afghanistan running from kindergarten through 12th grade, Dobriansky said.

Mrs. Bush, who was a librarian earlier in her life and works to promote literacy as first lady, visited the women's teacher training institute during her stay in Kabul.

"The goal of this institute is to train teachers who will be dispatched out to rural areas and will target young boys and girls who may not have as many benefits as do those in urban areas," Dobriansky said.

"There is the challenge of trying to reach out more and help the women in the rural areas, the ones who are not literate, the ones who need opportunities for micro-enterprise," she added.

Dobriansky said micro-enterprise is a key area in terms of providing loans for communities and for different types of economic projects.

One of the projects that is expected to have a major beneficial impact on impoverished Afghan women is the Afghan Conservation Corps.

"They may be refugees.  They may have large families.  They may have no husband.  But, they in fact are being employed to plant trees and dig irrigation ditches," she said.