University of Shanghai, OCHA & Islamic Relief: Embracing Knowledge & Expertise: Women’s Leadership in Addressing Climate-Driven Humanitarian Emergencies in Afghanistan
University of Shanghai, OCHA & Islamic Relief: Embracing Knowledge & Expertise: Women’s Leadership in Addressing Climate-Driven Humanitarian Emergencies in Afghanistan

November 2024

Despite being one of the lowest greenhouse gas emitters globally, Afghanistan ranks eighth out of 170 countries in terms of climate vulnerability, facing frequent and severe natural disasters such as floods, flash floods, and droughts.

The intersection of climate change, gender dynamics, and mobility creates a unique set of challenges that
disproportionately affect Afghan women and girls due to the current socio-political context, gender norms, limited income, lack of access to higher education, and exclusion from decision-making processes.

This paper produced collaboratively by Samuel Hall, Islamic Relief, University of Shanghai and OCHA highlights stories of two Afghan women to underscore two crucial points: first, on how the climate response has been deeply enriched by the leadership and contributions of women.

Second, it underscores that the humanitarian sector’s localisation agenda, and the development sector’s Basic Human Needs (BHN) approach, cannot be fully realised without the meaningful inclusion of women and faith actors.

Read full paperhere.

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Samuel Hallwomen leadership, climate adaptive solutions, Afghanistan, Asia, pacific, humanitarian emergencies
UNICEF: Endline Evaluation of the Adolescents and Youth Life Skills Programme (Maharati)
UNICEF: Endline Evaluation of the Adolescents and Youth Life Skills Programme (Maharati)

January 2025

Jordan has one of the world's youngest populations, but youth unemployment remains a major challenge, hitting 46.1% in 2022. Limited access to education, training, and jobs hampers young people's transition to higher education and the workforce. Refugees and women face even greater hurdles, with half of Syrian youth refugees unable to access secondary education.

To address these challenges, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Jordan Country Office (JCO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth (MoY), with their implementing partner Generations for Peace (GFP) implemented a life skills programme, the Maharati programme, from 2018-2022. This endline evaluation, commissioned by UNICEF JCO and conducted by Samuel Hall, had two main objectives:

  • From an accountability perspective – to measure the extent to which the planned results were achieved and the overall goal and objectives met.

  • From a learning perspective – to determine why planned and intended results were attained or not, to draw lessons and propose good practices and recommendations for learning, scale-up and replication.

The evaluation focuses on the Maharati programme’s activities from January 2018 to June 2022, implemented by the MoY in its youth centres across all governorates in Jordan. The findings, conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations aim to inform decision-making and programme improvement for UNICEF and MoY.

Read Full report here.

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Samuel HallUNICEF, JORDAN, youth, unemployment, COVID-19, YOUTH REFUGEES