Government, UN support efforts to enhance role of police women in Nangarhar

15 Feb 2015

Government, UN support efforts to enhance role of police women in Nangarhar

JALALABAD - The number of Afghan police women in the eastern province of Nangarhar has grown, due in part to a new initiative supported by the Ministry of Interior and the United Nations.

As one aspect of the new programme, backed by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and its partners in the region, Nangarhar police women came together last week to discuss critical issues they face in the region.

Organized by the Ministry of Interior, with the technical support of the region’s UN team, the workshop was held as a result of a new Ministry of Interior strategy, endorsed in August 2014, to support Women Police Councils (WPCs), which are designed not only to build solidarity among women police officers but also to encourage more women to choose police work as a vocation.

In Nangarhar, and in other parts of the country, UNAMA has worked with Government institutions, and directly with women police officers, to help women address the challenges they face.  Currently, out of several thousand police working in Nangarhar, 49 are women. That number is significantly different from prior years, when few women worked as police officers in the region.