Hazara people previously constituted around 67 % of the total population of Afghanistan . However , during the late-1800s , 60 % of the Hazara population were wiped out and suffered extreme discrimination . Although attempts were made during mid-1990s to unite Hazara and give them a voice at the United Nations , the situation got worse with the Taliban seizing power and declaring war on Shia ( MRG 2015 ).
• Sustainable development must take into consideration peace building as a key component of the process .
• Sustainable development management must focus on three principles : Participation and inclusion rather than centralized planning , meeting short term requirements without compromising long-term strategies , and the inclusion of a feedback loop for all development plans rather than having fixed ones to ensure flexibility and give room for constant improvements .
• Establishment of a body responsible for collecting and analyzing data that feeds the policy making process must be considered a priority .
• Ensure information sharing between different institutions and organizations by creating incentives to encourage cooperation and increase the cost of non-cooperative processes .
• Aid management . The overflow of aid can trigger unjust distribution of resources and might encourage corruption and create tension between different social sectors .
• It is critical to propose a gradual recovery plan that takes into consideration both the immediate needs of the city and the critical humanitarian cases and long term planning . Neglecting one of the two will cause the development plan to fail . This point will be clearly demonstrated in the specific development strategies by suggesting gradual reform .
Specific Strategies
Environmental Sustainable Development Strategies This section focuses on solving the problem of pollution , deforestation , accessibility to clean water , energy efficiency in buildings and clean energy production .
a . Energy One of the biggest challenges that is standing in the way of the Bamiyan population to extract itself from extreme poverty is the lack of a reliable source of power . Bamiyan is one of the areas in Afghanistan that still lives off the grid , and something as simple as lighting houses at night is still a dream for Bamiyan . The following strategies can be adopted to tackle the energy problem in the short term :
• Establishment of a retrofitting program that aims at using local skills and local materials to enhance the energy efficiency of existing buildings and therefore reduce the demand for energy . Simple and low-cost measures can be applied on residential and public buildings to enhance passive heating and cooling such as adding a south facing veranda that will act as a solar collector reducing the need for burning fossil fuel to heat houses . Consequently , Indoor Air Pollution ( IAP ) will be reduced . A successful implementation of a similar program was carried out by GERES ( 2015 ).
• Encourage the use of Solar Water Heating ( SWH ) for domestic uses since Bamiyan enjoys a lot of sunny days during the year and the use of solar power is already being successfully implemented in some areas . It is argued that SWH has a great potential in enhancing the quality of life in poor rural areas , eliminating the need for burning fossil fuel for heating water , and offering employment opportunities ( GNESD 2006 ).
• Establish a micro-credit approach that enables villagers to form an organization and take a loan from the banks to invest in renewable technologies and sell the energy to pay back the loan ( Biswas et al . 2001 ).
354 ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce , Italy