DAWEO represents one out of a small range of NGOs supporting the Afghan Women Protection Centres (WPCs). DAWEO was initially established as a local office of the Danish NGO “Danner” who has worked with VAW survivors for more than 35 years through shelter activities and political policy work in Denmark.

In 2012, Danner began its work by partnering with the country’s most progressive women’s rights

organizations, which together run the 27 WPCs in 22 provinces of Afghanistan. Over time, the necessity of a closer working relationship and linkage to state actors to ensure a more holistic approach to bettering the service delivery for female survivors of VAW in Afghanistan became clear.

In 2015, Danner initiated a cooperation with state entities by providing capacity building trainings to ministry staff (Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs and Ministry of Women’s Affairs) and by facilitating dialogue and cooperation between civil society organizations and state authorities through joint strategic meetings on VAW.

A vision of a locally-based organization was formulated already in 2014, and Danner focused its work on localizing the management of the activities in order to handover the responsibility to the office in Kabul. In 2018, the project management was officially handed over to the new-established NGO under the name of Danner Afghanistan Women Empowerment Organization (DAWEO).

With securing the 5 years of background and overall vision, DAWEO which is registered under registration No. 4422 with the Ministry of Economy, continues the strategic focus on strengthening the work and capacity of professionals in the field of VAW in general in terms of professionalizing the methodological approaches and strengthening the professional network with Ministry of Economy. DAWEO works with all WPC organisations in Afghanistan and is committed to working with Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs.