News and Views

UNAMA Poll: Returning Home to Rebuild Afghanistan

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is conducting a timely  online poll to determine public opinion on “Should Afghans living abroad now return home to help rebuild Afghanistan?” Although the poll does not discuss any specific ways as to how those who wish to return home can contribute to the rebuilding process, the majority of respondants have replied positively to the above question (55% yes; 25% mabye; and 20% no). We believe that the number of positive replies will dramatically increase if UNAMA provides additional information on how the United Nations will facilitate the return of qualified Afghans and effectively involve them in rebuilding Afghanistan.

In a recent article on “Rebuilding Afghanistan: The Diaspora’s Debt of Service,” M. Ashraf Haidari identified four practical ways on how resourceful Afghans abroad can contribute towards rebuilding Afghanistan. He said, “the first step to Afghanistan's recovery is to replace its ‘brain drain’ with ‘brain gain.’” He added that “Afghanistan's competitive human capacity lies in the West. Unfortunately, the donor community has so far failed to tap this indigenous resource outside Afghanistan, despite many calls by the government of Afghanistan to expand the return of qualified Afghans programs.”

However, we are encouraged by the UNAMA’s timely poll and hope that the United Nations will act on the poll’s results to support a long-term Return of Qualified Afghans Program to help build institutional capacity and strengthen civil society in Afghanistan. The Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington DC will play its key role in supporting and facilitating such an urgently needed program.   

Please visit UNAMA’s website at http://www.unama-afg.org/ to register your opinion.