Integrity Watch Afghanistan – keeping aid accountable

Afghanistan is the biggest recipient of aid in the world.  In 2015 – 2016, the country received US$3.4 billion of overseas development assistance (see link).  But in a country still grappling with democracy and the rule of law, keeping local officials accountable for how aid money is used is a challenge.  Integrity Watch Afghanistan works with communities to help them better understand the law and their rights to keep their officials accountable in how money is spent. IWA works in several specific fields, notably healthcare, education and infrastructure to support communities in ensuring these projects are delivered at the highest standard of integrity and accountability.
 
IWA had discovered that Forum Theatre was an extremely effective way of educating communities in how to keep officials accountable for how money is spent in their Community-based Monitoring (CBM) programmes.  Forum Theatre is an innovative tool that uses a team of actors to play out a challenge or ‘oppression’ that is faced by a community or group of people and then invites the audience to ‘step into’ the action to look at ways to solve these problems.  It is inherently empowering of the individuals and communities, enabling them to literally ‘rehearse for real life’ the conflict resolution skills necessary to take leadership in their communities.
 
In September, I delivered a 6-day training for senior team members of IWA in Dubai, focusing on the importance of team-building, prepping your audience for interaction and creativity, and developing story and character around the themes of IWA’s work to begin to shape Forum Theatre pieces for them to perform to their communities.  I also developed a handbook of tools to enable them to roll out the work back in Afghanistan.   During the training in Dubai, we developed three stories around health, education and infrastructure. 
 
The health story focused on Ahmad, 17 years old and the sole provider for his family’s income after his father died in a work accident.  Ahmed has developed breathing difficulties through a lack of adequate health and safety procedures implemented at the brick factory where he works.  In the education story, the focus was on the difficulties of girls receiving an education where the Taliban still prevails and the way in which more work could be done to educate communities on the importance of girl’s education.  In the infrastructure story, Fatima, a 45 year old widow and mother of 4 children, faces the threat of eviction from her home after corrupt officials sell off the land where she lives for an infrastructure project.
 
These are just some of the issues that IWA deals with in the community and the opportunity to empower community members to realise that they, too, can take action against such injustice is the principle goal of Forum Theatre.  The plan is to shape these pieces into more formal theatre shows that can then be toured to communities to educate them around the importance of keeping officials accountable to solving these issues.
 
The project was a humbling experience.  I knew little of Afghanistan before I started the project, other than what one reads in the papers.  The IWA team were invariably well-educated professionals who had the option to leave Afghanistan if they wished but had intentionally chosen to take part in the extremely risky work of community engagement, often working in areas still dominated by Taliban and Islamic State.  I marvelled at their courage and commitment to bring such techniques as Forum Theatre to a wider audience and to use the power of theatre to bring about real change in their country.  It’s not easy doing this kind of work and, indeed, when Forum Theatre was first developed in Brazil in the 1960s, it’s initiator, Augusto Boal, was exiled to France.  Such is the power of theatre!
 
I wish the Integrity Watch team all the best in implementing these techniques in Afghanistan and hope it will be the beginning of a real movement of thought in the country.  Bravo!