Afghanistan’s challenge: combining short-term crisis relief efforts with long term development

Abdul Rahim Nasry

CEO Hand in Hand Afghanistan http://www.hihinternational.org/

Abdul Rahim Nasry

The impact of conflict

• Destruction of civilian property and public infrastructure.

• The social and economic development of the country hampered.

• Millions of Afghans forced either to leave the country or become internally displaced.

• More than one million people have been killed or disabled.

• High prevalence of poverty and unemployment.

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Abdul Rahim Nasry

The Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)

The ANDS lays out the strategic priorities and the policies, programs and projects for achieving the government’s development objectives. These are organized under the following three pillars:

Pillar 1 - Security

Pillar 2 - Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights

Pillar 3 - Economic and Social Development

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The Afghanistan Labour Market

• According to a 2012 report from the ILO the Afghanistan informal sector accounts for 80 to 90% of the total economic activity

• 60% of the employed workforce are in agriculture

• The urban labour market, is characterized by skills mismatch and problems of job quality in both the informal and the small formal sectors

• The labour force is increasing by over 400,000 each year

• Women – especially in rural areas – are primarily involved in home-based income-generating activities like carpet weaving, sewing, tailoring, agricultural work and taking care of livestock and selling dairy products.

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Why focus on jobs in a post conflict situation?

In the post-conflict situation employment plays an important role in:

• Security and stability.

• Enabling people to improve their livelihoods, reduce poverty and participate in the national and local economic recovery and development.

• Sustaining the reintegration of ex-combatants, returnees and IDPs to their communities.

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Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand is a group of independent organizations working together towards a shared vision to reduce poverty through job creation in India, Afghanistan, southern Africa, and eastern Africa. So far over 1.5 million sustainable jobs have been generated.

Hand in Hand International in the UK and Hand in Hand Sweden are the fundraising, coordination, technical support and strategic expansion offices for the network.

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The informal economy – a vibrant sector

• The answer lies in the informal economy. Look at poverty differently and you will see grassroots entrepreneurs, full of energy, ideas, skills and potential.

• We use a comprehensive business creation model which blends four interlinked elements: social mobilization, training, credit access and market linkage support.

• We have adapted the model to fit Afghan local cultural and social patterns, making sure the support is tightly anchored in local realities and customs. For example, we are developing sharia compliant financial products.

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Hand in Hand model for job creation

The Hand in Hand approach sees job creation as a highly effective development tool, where micro-entrepreneurs are key drivers for economic growth and poverty reduction.

The model provides support for a comprehensive approach to job creation.

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Step 1 - Social Mobilization

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• Hand in Hand helps organize people, mostly women, into self-help groups (SHGs).

• They begin saving money, learning financial discipline and building up a group savings fund for which they are jointly responsible.

• “We found that the self-help group besides its economic benefit also promotes solidarity and unity among us, we can solve our problems jointly”

The Hand in Hand Afghanistan trainer, talking to the members of a female self-help group in the north of

Afghanistan.

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Step 2 - Business Training

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• Hand in Hand provides business training in how to start, grow and sustain a small business enterprise and become an entrepreneur.

• “Before being a member of the self-help group, we did not know how to calculate our income and expenditure nor the importance of quality in marketing our products”

The HiH Afghanistan trainer training self-help group members in Kaldar district of Balkh province.

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Step 2.1 – Vocational skills training

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• The Hand in Hand Afghanistan mobile vocational trainers provide skills training to the group members in their communities in: livestock rearing, food processing, poultry farming, bee keeping, tailoring, carpet weaving, silk weaving etc.

• “After being trained by Hand in Hand Afghanistan , we improved the quality of our carpets and chose a color and design which is more in demand in the market”

Habiba and co-worker, weaving carpet in Kaldar district, Balkh province

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Step 3- Access to credit

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• All self-help group members save together and so learn financial management.

• Should financial resourcesbe required beyond group

members’ own savings,they are trained in credit management and offered micro-loans, either directly or through partners active in their area.

• ‘We understood how to save and use loans to generate an income to be able to send our children to school and give them a better future’.

A self-help group member receives the loan from Hand in Hand in Shadian village, Balkh province

Abdul Rahim Nasry

Step 4 - Value addition & market linkages

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Hand in Hand provides support to self-help groups to improve productivity and competitiveness.

Advice on better packaging, pricing and branding; cheaper sourcing of supplies; quality control and reliable delivery;

“ Now we know the importance and benefits of packaging and labeling, as our sales almost doubled and there is more demand for our products”

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The results of the Hand in Hand business and job creation model in Afghanistan

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• People brought together in self-help groups:14,425 (51% female)

• Internal saving by self-help group members: US$ 264,975

• Value of Hand in Hand Afghanistan loans distributed to SHG members:

US$ 407,200

• Number of loans distributed from Enterprise Incubation Fund:2,384

• Number of loans from Groups Internal Saving:3,085

• Number of business/micro-enterprises formed:2,996 (50% female)

• Number of jobs created 4,471

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Hand in Hand Afghanistan – the future

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• We will continue to support Government of Afghanistan priorities related to microenterprise development, job creation, community empowerment and training to ultimately reduce poverty in Afghanistan.

• Strengthening partnership and collaboration with relevant stakeholders at central and community level.

• Replicate and expand our activities in other underserved areas in Afghanistan.

• Create 32,000 sustainable jobs by 2016 to benefit a over 250,000 family members.

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CHALLENGES FOR HUMANITARIAN AND

DEVELOPMENT WORK IN AFGHANISTAN

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Challenges for humanitarian and development work in Afghanistan

• NGOs and humanitarian workers have been under threats, pressures and are being kidnapped and killed.

• Unfavorable environment for development activities in specific areas especially in the south and south east of Afghanistan.

• Using of NGOs facilities by ANSF, NATO and insurgents brings the neutrality of NGOs and Aid workers into question.

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Challenges for humanitarian and development work in Afghanistan

• Diverse social, cultural and political condition in different parts of Afghanistan

• Provision of relief, reconstruction and development interventions without considering the needs and priorities of the communities

• Militarization of services, involvement of NATO/PRTs in humanitarian and development affairs - creates problem for NGOs

• Unrealistic expectations of community – a legacy of emergency relief

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Challenges

• Weak institutional capacity hampers policy development, planning, program design, M&E and delivery.

• Persistent high rates of illiteracy and functional illiteracy among the working population.

• Lack of qualified human resources, especially female, in the rural communities.

• Shortage of skilled workers in key potential economic growth industries/sectors.

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Challenges (cont...)

• The absence of widespread financial services tailored to cultural and seasonal needs for improvement in production, productivity and enterprise development.

• Production and commercialization of agricultural products – due to difficult access to storage facilities and input, lack of cold chain system, quality packaging, and lack of standardized production in large quantities as requested by the international distribution market.

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Challenges (cont...)

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• Donor dependency - lack of long term commitment by donors for the development projects.

• Natural disasters such as flood, earthquake and drought have very bad effects on the development projects.

• Transition of security from international forces to national security forces.

• Possible political instability - election of 2014.

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Summary of development & progress

Despite above mentioned challenges, the following development has taken place:

• Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in 2000 was 1600 per 100000 live births and has decreased up to 327 in 2011.

• Under 5 mortality rate from 161 has decreased up to 97 in each 1000 live births.

• According to NRVA survey in 2007 the anti-neonatal care was 36.5% and it has increased up to 60% in 2011.

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Summary of progress (cont…)

• In 2001 less than a million students attended school – now more then 10 million students (42% girls) attending the schools.

• The number of state run universities increased from 3 to 17 and there are now more than 74 private universities providing higher education including the American University in Kabul.

• For the first time the private sector participated in the provision of education and health services.

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For more information…

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http://www.hihinternational.org/

20 York Street, London W1U 6PU, United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7514 5091