Building resilience and new skills in rural Afghanistan
A partnership between WFP and ACTED has helped more than 10,000 people to improve their food security and withstand weather extremes.
Malalai lives with her 13 family members in Mula Sardar, a rural village in Kunduz Province, northeastern Afghanistan. Her father works as a guard, but his salary isn’t enough to support the whole family or send all of his children to school.
In Afghanistan, finding reliable employment can be challenging. Unemployment rates exceed 19 percent — 13.9 percent for men and 36.4 percent for women — and over 54 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Employment in agriculture dominates the labour market, encompassing 44 percent of all jobs.
Frequent climate shocks and few social safety nets mean that even people who grow food for a living or work in agriculture are often food insecure themselves.
Working beyond food delivery
For the World Food Programme (WFP), providing solutions beyond direct food assistance that will contribute to development and peace in the country are becoming increasingly important.
In 2018, Afghanistan experienced its worst drought in a decade, which hit 22 out of 34 provinces throughout the harvest and lean seasons. As crops failed and livestock died, thousands of families were forcibly displaced as they went in search of food and new livelihoods.
WFP provided food and cash to 2.7 million people in the hardest-hit areas so the could meet their immediate needs. But preparing for future climate shocks is an important step towards improving food security for families across the country. WFP is working with partners on activities to foster sustainable food systems. So when weather extremes hit, families are ready and the shocks won’t be as severe.
The WFP-ACTED partnership worked with existing community groups — or “self-help” groups — to organize skills trainings. These groups are common in Afghanistan and are usually made up of around 20 local women who pool their money to fund common initiatives, such as running a greenhouse or managing a piece of land, or to meet emergency needs.
From May 2018 to June 2019, WFP provided more than US $3 million in funding to ACTED to help support agricultural cooperatives and community groups with training and equipment, teaching them new skills to boost their productivity. More than 10,000 men and women participated in the programme across the five northern and eastern provinces of Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Nangarhar and Samangan.
Gaining new skills, from jam making to literacy
For Malalai, attending vocational skills training for six months was an opportunity for her and more than 1,900 other women in 88 community groups to learn about how to launch and manage their own businesses.
It was also a chance to build new skills that were chosen by the groups, such as food conservation techniques like making jam and drying fruit using a solar dryer — one of which was provided to each group.
Approximately 17% of Afghan women are literate, posing a major hurdle for many who want to participate in the workforce. So ACTED included basic numeracy and literacy in their training using materials validated by the Ministry of Education.
“We learned a lot in the training,” said Malalai. “I’m looking forward to selling my products and I really hope all the women in my village can one day benefit from the training, too.”
For each month during the six-month training, the participants and their families were supported with AFN 2,300 (USD $30) to buy food, preventing them from having to resort to negative coping mechanisms like taking their children out of school and sending them to beg or find odd jobs.
ACTED also provided packaging material and marketing training to the women for selling their items. “Most of the women were illiterate and didn’t understand how to produce homemade products and how to market them. They really appreciated the trainings, and many expressed a desire for continued activities,” said Nabila, an ACTED staff member.
Increasing production and connecting to markets
“Farmer Field Schools” were another part of the project, providing demonstrations for 2,460 agricultural workers — including 400 women — about proper cultivation techniques and how to increase crop resilience and diversity. Those who participated in the schools, as well as other community farmers, received in-kind assistance of wheat, fertilizer and other crops to enhance their plots, while cash was provided directly to farmer cooperatives for purchasing small-scale equipment.
In addition, 44 greenhouses and 8 dry storage units for crops were constructed, which community groups and cooperatives will manage. More than 2,800 women were also trained in poultry farming and kitchen gardening. Following the training, the women received poultry kits that help them start their own poultry farms.
Gender awareness sessions reached 5,570 male and female community members to promote the integration of women into economic activities. Many cooperatives put the gender training into immediate practice, installing quotas for female members to participate in the management of the cooperatives.
Bibi Hawa from Laghman province had been working as a farmer for years, but struggled to cover day-to-day expenses or send her daughters to school. After learning more about best practices related to planting, watering and harvesting vegetables, she feels more positive about being able to grow food for her family of eight and sell extra on the market to supplement the family income. “Now, I can suggest new methods and techniques to my husband for taking care of our produce,” she says. “Before, he made all the decisions, but it’s not always the other way around anymore.”
Following the training, in collaboration with local authorities, four agro-fairs were organized across the country in urban centers to connect producers and cooperatives to markets, resulting in signed contracts with buyers for long-term trading agreements.
As this project wraps up, WFP and ACTED are already working together on new joint projects related to boosting the country’s wheat value chain and improving community assets in Afghanistan to further support families and rural communities moving towards a more resilient future.
Read more about WFP’s work in Afghanistan.
