Hodei Sultan currently coordinates and provides oversight in the development and planning, financial management, and gender programming outreach for the Afghanistan and Pakistan program. Previously, she worked with USIP's Afghanistan and Pakistan Priority Grants programs on soliciting, reviewing, and developing grant proposals with Afghan and Pakistani civil society organizations.
Below is an Interview of her about Afghanistan, Central and South Asia Educational system and Economy
FA: Please tell us about yourself and your background
HS: I was born in Kabul Afghanistan in the 1980s and lived there during the increasing turmoil and unrest. In 1992, my family decided that it was best we leave; we spent a few brief months in Pakistan before moving to Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, I attended primary school (grade 1 – 7) in Harare. With the rising economic and political unrest of Zimbabwe, my family left once again to settle in the United States. In the summer of 1999, we moved from Zimbabwe to Arlington, Virginia, where I attended high school. Following high school, I attended George Mason University where I attained a B.A. in Global Affairs with a concentration in the MENA region. Following graduation, I worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on counter trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2008 I enrolled at George Mason University in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution program. In 2009, I started working with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Afghanistan and Pakistan Program; it was a welcome change to be able to work on programs in Afghanistan, especially from a peacebuilding and conflict resolution perspective which is what my Masters Degree was geared towards. In addition to my work with USIP, I am teaching two undergraduate courses at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) on peacebuilding & conflict resolution and Peace & Stability Operations, it is refreshing to see the vigor and passion the students have in making a difference in the conflicts we are engaged in.
FA: Please tell us about the United States Institute of Peace and the philosophy behind it.
HS: USIP is the independent, nonpartisan conflict management center created by Congress to prevent and mitigate international conflict without resorting to violence. USIP works to save lives increase the government's ability to deal with conflicts before they escalate, reduce government costs, and enhance our national security.
USIP began operating in Afghanistan in 2002, where it focused on strengthening the rule of law following the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001. In 2008, the Institute based a full-time country director in Kabul to oversee what had become an expanded program. The following year, USIP formally opened an office in Kabul, which by 2012 was staffed by a country director, national and international program staff, and administrative/support staff who play an indispensible role in providing the latest on the ground information regarding Afghanistan, and in supporting and administering USIP programs. USIP experts in Kabul and Washington are working diligently toward peace and stability by implementing projects aimed at:
- Informing United States, Afghan and international policy and practice;
- Strengthening governance and the rule of law;
- Building understanding of and capacity in conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution for Afghan individuals and institutions.
FA: What do you look for in the projects and partners you work with?
HS: The approach that USIP takes in selecting projects and partners we work with in Afghanistan is two-fold:
In selecting projects, USIP aims to support innovative project ideas and new approaches that help to inform and catalyze larger efforts. USIP’s Afghanistan program’s overall strategy in designing projects is to choose innovative approaches, implement them on a small scale, evaluate their results through a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework, and communicate the results both to donors and to other actors with a larger implementation capacity.
USIP selects its projects based on fields that can contribute to understanding conflict and promoting stability and peace in Afghanistan but where sufficient attention has not yet been paid.
Since the establishment of USIP’s presence in 2002, its Afghanistan Program has focused on the rule
of law, in particular informal justice mechanisms, as well as local conflict resolution mechanisms,
for example through the provision of conflict-resolution training, work with women and youth
groups and media outreach.
In identifying partners, USIP’s Afghanistan program aims to increase the breadth and depth of the Institute's work by supporting peacebuilding projects managed by non-profit organizations in Afghanistan including educational institutions, research institutions, and civil society organizations. Through working with local civil society organizations, USIP aims to enhance local capacity in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
FA: How did you and USIP become a Thought Leader in the topic of peace? What are some of the projects that worked as a milestone in establishing peace in conflicted countries?
HS: One of the areas in which USIP over the years has become a Thought Leader is through its research and analysis efforts. Two examples are USIP’s Afghanistan Senior Experts in Residence Program and the Jennings Randolph (JR) Senior Fellowships Program, which offers various opportunities to scholars, practitioners, policy analysts, and other experts to spend time at USIP to reflect and write on pressing international peace and security challenges. The reports that culminate from USIP’s programs are shared with the academic and policy audiences as well as the general public in the U.S. and abroad.
Minister Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai was a Senior Fellow at USIP’s JR Fellowship Program in 2008 where he wrote a Special Report on prospects for peace in Afghanistan, entitled: “Thwarting Afghanistan’s Insurgency: a Pragmatic Approach towards Peace and Reconciliation.”. Minister Stanekzai is now the Chairman of the Secretariat of High Peace Council and Senior Advisor to President Karzai on Internal Security. The High Peace Council represents the government in negotiations with the Taliban.
In addition, USIP’s Gender and Peacebuilding Program is conducting a program on Lessons Learned and Best Practices for Women in Transition Countries. The program has established a community of practice that convenes here in Washington DC for regular roundtable discussions on what are the lessons learned, best practices, challenges, and opportunities for working with women in countries of transition. Following a series of roundtables, we convened our first Expert Dialogue in Istanbul in July 2012 where we brought together a group of Afghan and Iraqi women across various sectors (education, civil society, political, economic, media). The discussion was enriching and following the Dialogue, we recently published a USIP Special Report on Peacebuilding Efforts of Women from Afghanistan and Iraq: Lessons in Transition, the report highlights key points from the discussion we had in Istanbul. One of the key points from the July Istanbul Dialogue was that the women from Afghanistan and Iraq wanted to engage in dialogue with women from the Arab Spring.
In December, we reconvened for our second Expert Dialogue, this time in Antalya, where we brought together a group of Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan, and Tunisian women. The discussions were extremely insightful on what the challenges and opportunities are and will be in working in countries undergoing transition. We will be publishing a special report early next year that will highlight the key points of the Antalya Dialogue.
FA: Do you use social media to promote your projects? If yes, how?
HS: USIP leverages social media to promote its programs and projects. In addition to the USIP website (www.usip.org). USIP also utilizes Facebook and Twitter to increase awareness on the important work it is doing.
FA: Can peace building and promoting post-conflict stability influence a digital, cultural revolution? If yes, how so? Where do you see the future of developing countries like Afghanistan? Do you think peace building and promoting post-conflict with social media can help improve their economy and education system?
HS: Afghanistan is at a critical cross: in 2014, the US transition in Afghanistan will be complete and the security forces will withdraw, leaving only a small troop number to serve in an advisory capacity. There are different tiers to the 2014 transition and success in each tier is crucial for peace and post-conflict stability. The three tiers are the economic, security, and political transition. In the security transition, it is critical that the capacity of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is at a sufficient level to provide adequate security to Afghans once the international forces withdraw. In the economic tier, Afghanistan has to become economically self reliant as international assistance continues to reduce from prior levels. Finally, in the political tier, ensuring a credible election and an effective change of power in 2014 will be crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability.
Social media undoubtedly will have a critical role to play across all the above tiers of transition. Afghanistan is one of the conflict countries in which media is used as a source of keeping up to date on the political and security landscape. In the social media sector, across Afghanistan, Afghans across different age and social groups are utilizing social media, in particular Facebook to employ messages of activism and their daily social activities with youth from other parts of Afghanistan and with their counterparts abroad. Aside from online social media, radio and television play a vital role in the spread of information relating to political and security developments; though television becomes much more limited outside of Kabul, access to radio is widespread.
FA: As a successful woman, What is your advice for women in Afghanistan to have a better future, based on their current situation?
HS: My advice as an Afghan woman in the Diaspora Afghan community is that it is important for the women across Afghanistan to work together irrespective of economic, social, or political affiliation to ensure that the gains they have worked so hard for across different sectors are maintained and enhanced in the run up to 2014 and beyond. I would also urge the women to network with each other to strengthen and coordinate the important work they are doing. Finally, I have met many Afghan women who have proven to be resilient despite the many obstacles they are faced with and they like many others believe that any peace process that occurs in Afghanistan must be inclusive of women.
I would like to conclude the blog with a nice quote about peace by Ralph Waldo Emerson which says:
"Peace can not be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding"
it is not just the matter of USIP being in Afghanistan and try to provide more peace but the most important thing is the contribution of Afghan people with these program which lead them to have a better output for what they are doing in Afghanistan. We can not wish to have peace but we have to do something to have peace, it needs trust, honesty, reliability and respect among people in a community.
