For Immediate Release
Kabul, Afghanistan – U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Michael McKinley honored 10 Afghan women at the American Embassy on August 22 for their selection as the first of 3,000 civil service interns sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the $38 million Promote: Women in Government program.
USAID’s Women in Government program will significantly help Afghan women obtain key roles in the Afghan government, private sector and civil society and will be implemented in partnership with the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Services Commission, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and other Afghan government agencies. Ambassador McKinley recognized the women for their courage and dedication to serve Afghanistan in the civil service.
“Investing in women is important and at the center of U.S. foreign policy,” Ambassador McKinley said. “To the women here today, I want to say thank you. We know that women’s participation is essential to addressing virtually every challenge we face as individual nations and as a community of nations.”
The program will help the Afghan Government identify, select, and train female university and high school graduates to prepare them for the Afghan civil service, and place them in select ministries. The Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Afghanistan, the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock, the Minister of Women’s Affairs, and the Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development also attended the event.
Minister of Women’s Affairs Delbar Nazari, said advancement of women and girls is within reach thanks to USAID. “Through Promote the government will be able to hire a significant number of women to work in different agencies to help them gain experience and knowledge through practical work, and to way pave the way for their permanent employment,” Nazari said.
Najia Alizada, a 22-year-old recent graduate of Kabul University, said the program will help her achieve her career goals. “When I graduated from university I wanted to work in government but I didn’t have the experience,” she said. “After completion of this internship program I want to work in the Ministry of Counter Narcotics, in a position to help addicted Afghans.”
The USAID Promote (Promoting Gender Equity in National Priority) program is a five-year initiative to provide young educated Afghan women opportunities to improve their skills, experience, knowledge, and expand their networks to become leaders in government, business and civil society.
Comment
Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement.