UNOPS engineers spoke to students from Kabul University as part of a string of UN presentations on UN day 2009. The presentations aimed to engage the future decision makers of Afghanistan in discussions on the role of the UN in the developments in the country.

Engineer Mohammadullah, who is working with the country wide Afghanistan Conservation Corps project (ACC), explained how he applied his engineering skills to enhance sustainable agricultural production in the country through the establishment of pistachio forests, nurseries, and irrigation canals. The ACC, which is a labour-based natural resource rehabilitation and biodiversity conservation project established in 2003, under the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) with the technical support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL), has so far supported the rural poor in 23 provinces of the country.
 
Key to his work on ACC, Mohammedullah explained, is not only the application of his design and planning skills as an engineer, but also the ability to think outside the box in an effort to train beneficiaries in the maintenance of the forests, nurseries and irrigation canals to prolong the benefits of the work.
 
The ACC team has been highly sucessful in applying labour intensive methods; creating ownership of the results; as well as training beneficiaries from the local development councils down to the farmers. Since its creation, the ACC has generated 400,000 labour days of employment for the rural poor; constructed 7 training centres in 7 provinces and carried out training on maintenance for hundreds of people; constructed 100 km of irrigation canals as well as 1000 km of retaining walls for river bank stabilization. More than 1,500 home nurseries have been established while over 3,5 million fruit and non fruit saplings have been produced.
 
Engineer Waheedullah, who works in AGOC's vertical structures unit on the construction of the Ghazi boys high school and the Sarder e Kabuli girls high school in Kabul funded by USAID, also emphasized the need to take a multi-dimensional approach to engineering for development. Detailing how devastating earthquakes can be if buildings have not been properly designed, as witnessed in Northern Pakistan, Waheedullah described how UNOPS applies the international standards for construction of buildings in all its construction work in order to ensure year round usage despite changing temperatures and the risk of earthquakes.
 
Waheedullah, who himself attended Kabul University when he was a student, also told the students how important it was to have more trained engineers in Afghanistan and how he hoped that the students before him would follow in his footsteps and put their acquired skills to use for the further development of the country.
 
Enlivened by the presentations, the students asked about future employment opportunities with UNOPS; inquired on the status of the work at the two high schools; and asked for further details on UNOPS projects.
 
Commenting on the event afterwards, Mohammedullah said that the students had been very positive and expressed their desire to have more presentations on the real life application of engineering for development.