Hi! I am Ana – Anastasiya Hozyainova. I am a researcher, writer, facilitator and the founder of Civil Focus, a research and management consultancy. I lived and worked in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2013 where I co-founded the Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization and served as the Director of Research. I hold a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University.
I established Civil Focus to build a company that could make a real impact across diverse communities and organizations. I believe in bringing together teams with diverse perspectives and collaborating with them to explore a presenting situation from a variety of viewpoints.
Below is a short essays on what teams at Civil Focus were able to achieve.
We focus on seemingly small details to identify key barriers to inclusion, obstacles to reform, and critical opportunities for transformation. There are so many examples where the key to change was not a massive policy change, but a change in perspective. In one project, we were tasked with understanding why a victims protection law was failing. We discovered that many victims were denied protection because they were deemed unworthy, they were seen as lacking “honor and chastity” and excluded from legal protection by officials. We ended up working with program teams to emphasizing the inherent dignity of all human beings, which helped the victims. In another project, we worked with human rights activists to develop better security protocols. We discovered several urban myths about surveillance and digital security that exposed many to preventable risks.
Over the years, our work at Civil Focus has focused on countering structural discrimination by listening to diverse perspectives and finding mutually acceptable solutions without compromising our values. One of our favorite examples comes from our experience working with a village council in Afghanistan.
We were tasked with producing an action plan to implement a development project that required the inclusion of women in governance structures. However, upon meeting the village council, we were informed that women were not allowed to hold positions on the council. Instead of pushing back, we made a concerted effort to listen to the arguments of the villagers and council members. Through active listening and engagement, we suggested the creation of a mothers council. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with the community recognizing the value of mothers’ perspectives in providing advice on governance matters.
As we see Afghanistan once again under Taliban control, this story gives us hope that at least one community recognized the importance of mothers coming together to inform how their community should be governed.
Our other favorite example is how we were able to bring connection between police and high school students, humanizing both sides of the table and improving overall security in remote communities. In many countries, police departments are often hesitant to engage with young people in discussions regarding security issues. Young people, particularly young women, are often dismissed as being too immature or carefree to contribute meaningfully. To address this, we designed a program in Kyrgyzstan where young people will create issue reports and corresponding policy solutions for issues such as violent radicalization, child marriage, and girls’ access to education. Then they would collaborate with other community organization to present their ideas to the police and community governments to hear their presentations. After presenting their issues, the young people continued to press the police precincts for ongoing engagement. Several years later, during a project evaluation, many police chiefs informed us that the contributions of these young people provided valuable insights into community needs.
In one of our projects, we faced challenges in obtaining community buy-in for a nature preserve, as many saw it as a waste of resources. We reframed the preserve as a water sink that prevents flooding in downstream communities and an economic boost for farmers who rely on insects for food production. This approach gained wider community support and helped us secure funding for the perserve.
Our success comes from our ability to communicate effectively with the communities we work with, both in the literal and cultural sense. We understand that both formal legal requirements and informal perceptions play a significant role in any social or community space.