Brussels Conference on Afghanistan: 'Empowered Women - Prosperous Afghanistan' event - Main contents

Putting women at the core of efforts to rebuild families, communities and all of Afghanistan

We started this week's Brussels Conference on Afghanistan with an event on 'Empowered Women - Prosperous Afghanistan.' To echo the statement of HRVP Federica Mogherini applauded by all in the room - this was not a side event, but the main event. And as USAID Administrator, Gayle Smith, said, so often at international conferences like this a gender event comes right at the end of a few days of discussions - more as an after thought, than the foundation on which the whole premise of sustainable development is built.

I'm sure by now that you know my thoughts on this: without women there can be no development. And nowhere is this more the case than in Afghanistan. Yes, we have seen signs of tremendous progress since 2001. There are 10 times more children in education, of which around 39% are girls. There are 80% less mothers dying in child birth. And there are 27% of women in parliament.

Afghan women have begun to take their rightful place at all levels of society, from farmers and entrepreneurs, to Government Ministers and Ambassadors. The First Lady, Rula Ghani, highlighted some examples in her keynote speech:

However as President Ghani pointed out, for every one woman empowered there are still ten more who are deprived of their rights. Afghanistan is still the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman. Afghan women are still the first to suffer from the precarious political, economic and security situation. And the face of poverty in Afghanistan is still overwhelmingly female.

But on hearing about the interventions in the room from prominent defenders of women's rights, both on the panel and from the floor, a number of recurrent themes became clear.

Firstly, we need to focus on quality as well as quantity.

This was repeated time and again by many of our speakers, and it plays out on different levels. Whilst access to education has been one of the most impressive signs of progress, it is still not enough if many are still illiterate when they leave school.

While there are more women now represented in the Afghan parliament than in many Western democracies, it means nothing unless their voices are truly heard. And this success must also trickle down to the provincial and district levels.

As Sima Samar, Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, mentioned, it does not matter that they have fallen short of their 5,000 target with just 2,860 women in the police, if they do not have the tools, training, self-confidence and a safe space in which to operate.

And as one comment from the audience reminded us, if we want to focus on quality as well as quantity, then we must also apply this same standard to men.

Secondly, Afghan women do not need others to speak for them.

The Afghan women in the room were more than testament to this. The voice of Afghan women is rich, it is diverse, but it is also united. And they know what they want. From very practical things - like bathrooms in schools or dormitories in universities for young women and girls - the absence of which still presents a formidable barrier for many to receive a decent education.

But they also want to be listened to. They want to be partners and not recipients of support. As many of our Afghan speakers said, they know what they need. And what they do not need is for others to tell them how to do it. There must be more demand driven development. It has to be built from the bottom up in response to local needs and in line with national plans and programmes.

This is why I am delighted that on the same day I signed a €200 million a year state building contract to give the Afghan Government the fiscal room to implement its commitments to reform, including in the field of women's rights.

Thirdly, Afghan women don't want charity, they want opportunities

As President Ghani said, charity does not empower women, but market access does - improving women's position in the value chain and linking them to European importers. He encouraged us to support initiatives such the AfghanMark, which carries the words "Made by Afghan Women" and guarantees higher wages and better working conditions for the women behind these products.

We heard from Manizha Wafeq, Co-Founder and Chair of the Leading Entrepreneurs for Afghanistan's Development (LEAD) that the nearly 700 women-led businesses in Afghanistan have invested over $66 million and employ almost 4,000 men and women. Of those over 80% invested from their own savings.

Finally, promoting women's rights and socio-economic empowerment are two sides of the same coin.

Our discussions featured two separate panels on each of these important aspects of gender equality in Afghanistan. But as Phumzile Mlambo of UN Women explained, these two aims are mutually self-serving. When women's rights are protected, they are able to enter the employment market. And when a woman is economically empowered, she is more able to fight for her own rights.

Through shining the spotlight on these two essential elements, I hope the next time the international community meets with our partners in Afghanistan we will have even more great stories of women's political, economic and social empowerment to share.