Jennifer McCarthy
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Research
Title: Spaces of Power, Participatory Development and Social Vulnerability in Afghanistan
My PhD research addresses the linkages between participatory development in northern Afghanistan and the apparent increasing vulnerability of Afghans to environmental hazards. The current drought has plagued the northern regions of Afghanistan since roughly 2004, and this is reportedly the tenth drought to hit Afghanistan since 1970 (MRRD and CSO 2007). However, this fragile humanitarian situation has not gone unnoticed.
A multitude of international donors, including the United Nations and foreign governments, have funded aid, relief and development projects in the Afghan north from the mid-1980s, but most significantly since 2001. Despite this, Afghans remain vulnerable to environmental hazards, and the continuing drought has contributed decreases in life expectancy from 44.5 years in 2003 to 43.1 years in 2005 (Centre for Policy and Human Development 2007).
The 2007 Afghanistan National Human Development Report states that 44% of Afghans perceived themselves as being food insecure. Based on my observations in Afghanistan during mid-2008, I can state with a high degree of certainty that this percentage of perceived food insecurity has risen sharply.
This project will consider how development has shifted power structures and what impact this continues to have on levels of vulnerability. Thus vulnerability will be considered an outcome and a condition resulting from social-ecological processes being shaped by participatory development. These concerns with are born out of gradually observing, over the past four years, the inability of participatory development in Afghanistan to mitigate vulnerability being experienced by Afghans in the northern region.
Non-violent forms of conflict are experienced in many rural settlements in north Afghanistan. These include, for example, local elites usurping household or community income for their own benefit, illegal tax collecting, theft of livestock or human trafficking. There can be little doubt that non-violent conflict can exacerbate vulnerability. What is of immediate concern in this research project is the ability of conflict to arise amid power shifts brought on by a nation-wide participatory development programme, the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).
That social vulnerability continues to plague Afghans despite this environment being heavily influenced by participatory development is of grave concern and points to the need for an analysis of what roles power and conflict play in this complex social-ecological-political scenario.
Funding: School of Social Science and Public Policy Studentship, Overseas Research Student Award.
Supervisors: Daanish Mustafa and Richard Schofield
My PhD research addresses the linkages between participatory development in northern Afghanistan and the apparent increasing vulnerability of Afghans to environmental hazards. The current drought has plagued the northern regions of Afghanistan since roughly 2004, and this is reportedly the tenth drought to hit Afghanistan since 1970 (MRRD and CSO 2007). However, this fragile humanitarian situation has not gone unnoticed.
A multitude of international donors, including the United Nations and foreign governments, have funded aid, relief and development projects in the Afghan north from the mid-1980s, but most significantly since 2001. Despite this, Afghans remain vulnerable to environmental hazards, and the continuing drought has contributed decreases in life expectancy from 44.5 years in 2003 to 43.1 years in 2005 (Centre for Policy and Human Development 2007).
The 2007 Afghanistan National Human Development Report states that 44% of Afghans perceived themselves as being food insecure. Based on my observations in Afghanistan during mid-2008, I can state with a high degree of certainty that this percentage of perceived food insecurity has risen sharply.
This project will consider how development has shifted power structures and what impact this continues to have on levels of vulnerability. Thus vulnerability will be considered an outcome and a condition resulting from social-ecological processes being shaped by participatory development. These concerns with are born out of gradually observing, over the past four years, the inability of participatory development in Afghanistan to mitigate vulnerability being experienced by Afghans in the northern region.
Non-violent forms of conflict are experienced in many rural settlements in north Afghanistan. These include, for example, local elites usurping household or community income for their own benefit, illegal tax collecting, theft of livestock or human trafficking. There can be little doubt that non-violent conflict can exacerbate vulnerability. What is of immediate concern in this research project is the ability of conflict to arise amid power shifts brought on by a nation-wide participatory development programme, the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).
That social vulnerability continues to plague Afghans despite this environment being heavily influenced by participatory development is of grave concern and points to the need for an analysis of what roles power and conflict play in this complex social-ecological-political scenario.
Funding: School of Social Science and Public Policy Studentship, Overseas Research Student Award.
Supervisors: Daanish Mustafa and Richard Schofield
Biography
Jennifer was born in Montreal, Canada. She completed her BA in Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University in 2003 after several fruitful years of flying small aircraft, teaching, travelling, attending private college courses in law and undertaking government employment.
After volunteering as Advocacy Coordinator for the Montreal chapter of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (www.w4wafghan.ca), she left Canada in 2003 to work as a farmhand in Ireland and then went on to work in Kabul on human rights and women’s income generation projects. Jennifer then began her MA in Environment and Development at King’s in 2004. She moved to Faryab province in northern Afghanistan in 2005 to manage regional operations for ACTED (www.acted.org), a multi-sectoral INGO.
After a short post-emergency contract with ACTED in Aceh, Indonesia in early 2006, Jennifer completed her MA with Distinction and moved to rural Burma to coordinate a water supply and sanitation project for CARE Myanmar (www.careaustralia.org.au) until June 2007. She currently has part-time employment as a King's Student Ambassador for Widening Participation and she is also coordinating the design of and fundraising for a locally-managed Sasak cultural revitalisation and development project in Lombok, Indonesia.
Jennifer continues to be active in human rights advocacy and awareness-raising on a low-profile, voluntary basis with various non-profit groups in the UK, Afghanistan, Burma and Thailand.
After volunteering as Advocacy Coordinator for the Montreal chapter of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (www.w4wafghan.ca), she left Canada in 2003 to work as a farmhand in Ireland and then went on to work in Kabul on human rights and women’s income generation projects. Jennifer then began her MA in Environment and Development at King’s in 2004. She moved to Faryab province in northern Afghanistan in 2005 to manage regional operations for ACTED (www.acted.org), a multi-sectoral INGO.
After a short post-emergency contract with ACTED in Aceh, Indonesia in early 2006, Jennifer completed her MA with Distinction and moved to rural Burma to coordinate a water supply and sanitation project for CARE Myanmar (www.careaustralia.org.au) until June 2007. She currently has part-time employment as a King's Student Ambassador for Widening Participation and she is also coordinating the design of and fundraising for a locally-managed Sasak cultural revitalisation and development project in Lombok, Indonesia.
Jennifer continues to be active in human rights advocacy and awareness-raising on a low-profile, voluntary basis with various non-profit groups in the UK, Afghanistan, Burma and Thailand.
Conference Papers and Public Lectures
McCarthy, J. (2008) “The Afghan Participation Game Unravelled: Deconstructing ‘Community’ and ‘Civil Society’ in Afghanistan”, 6th Annual Students for Development Conference, Oxford University, United Kingdom, 21-22 June 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Deconstructing Power and Spaces of Participation in the National Solidarity Programme: A Case Study from Faryab Province”, 104th Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 15-19 April 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Spaces of Power and Participatory Development in Afghanistan: A Case Study of the National Solidarity Programme and (Un)Changing Political Power Structures in Faryab Province”, BASAS 22nd Annual Conference, Leicester, United Kingdom, 26-28 March 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Problematizing the Role of NGOs in Alternatives to Development in Afghanistan”, Afghanistan Study Group Inaugural Lecture, London, United Kingdom, 27 February 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Deconstructing Power and Spaces of Participation in the National Solidarity Programme: A Case Study from Faryab Province”, 104th Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 15-19 April 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Spaces of Power and Participatory Development in Afghanistan: A Case Study of the National Solidarity Programme and (Un)Changing Political Power Structures in Faryab Province”, BASAS 22nd Annual Conference, Leicester, United Kingdom, 26-28 March 2008.
McCarthy, J. (2008) “Problematizing the Role of NGOs in Alternatives to Development in Afghanistan”, Afghanistan Study Group Inaugural Lecture, London, United Kingdom, 27 February 2008.
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