Enhancing Economic Opportunities for Afghan Women

A particularly concerning challenge is the low level of economic empowerment of Afghan women. While women constitute about half of the estimated 37 million population of Afghanistan.  The female labor force participation rate stands at only 26.8 percent. Among working age women, only 29 percent are economically active and most are employed in the agriculture sector (70 percent) while 24 percent are in manufacturing. The share of women in wage employment in non-agriculture sector is only 10 percent. Only 19.9 percent of female population is literate (versus 49.4 percent for men), although this figure nearly doubles to 38 percent if only the female population under 25 is counted, a significant testimony to the advances that have been obtained over the past decade. Women earn significantly less than men, For the sample type of job, women earn 30 percent less than men on average. Four out of five female rural workers are unpaid family workers, compared with only one out of five male workers.

Enhancing Economic Opportunities for Afghan Women with financial support of Embassy of Republic of India in Kabul is working with vulnerable Afghan women in rural areas to provide skills training and enable them to establish themselves in profitable small enterprises. The project’s main activities include:

• Provide skills training
• Facilitate market linkage for Afghan women entrepreneurs
• Conduct study tours for Afghan women entrepreneurs
• Conduct women’s handicrafts exhibition
• Conduct market assessments
• Provide literacy training, business and life skills training
• Provide start-up kits
• Provide technical assistance and mentoring for women entrepreneurs

With the goal of increasing economic opportunities for Afghan women, the project created job opportunities for Afghan women and built their capacity to produce different high quality products that meet the market demand and run their business on a long-term basis and meet their basic needs.