Afghanistan

At present, the training institutions provide very limited information to the policy makers with regard to the provision of the TVET system. Standard curricula do not exist, training of trainers facilities are not available and there is no registration or accreditation system. Certification is ‘in-house’ and there are no common standards from which trainees or employees can gauge level of study or achievement. This study represents the first attempt to register TVET providers across the sector, collect essential baseline information and to gauge their performance.

One of the biggest challenges for South Asian countries in coming years is to unlock the latent potential of the millions of young people entering the workforce. The region is poised to benefit from a “demographic dividend”, which could lead to great gains in poverty reduction, employment generation and economic growth. Yet the other possible result is widespread youth unemployment.

In this context, the importance of skills development as a driver of socio-economic development is paramount. Governments have recognised the importance of education and training in this process. There have been notable successes in improved participation rates for primary and secondary education across the region. But youth unemployment and underemployment remain pervasive, despite a growing cohort of educated young workers joining the workforce. As a result, policymakers are now placing greater emphasis on understanding skill gaps in labour markets and developing skills systems geared to address these.

This publication maintains that the potential economic rewards of greater public-sector focus on skills could be immense, though the complexity of the challenge and other competing priorities suggest that such efforts must be targeted, guided by data and evidence, and done in collaboration with the private sector.

In 2002, NRC began developing a programme targeting youth in post-conflict zones. These Youth Education Packs (YEP) were intended to respond not just to employment needs but also to teach young people, who had grown up in often challenging and unstable situations, literacy and life skills.1 After implementation in several countries around the world (Liberia; Burundi; Sierra Leone and more), beginning in 2010, NRC implemented this YEP project in Afghanistan, specifically in Herat, Faryab and Nangarhar provinces. Today, NRC at a global and strategic level is reviewing the efficiency of YEP as an instrument to enhance livelihood in post-conflict and conflict settings.

This evaluation falls at the intersection of migration studies, youth research and strategic review. It provides a fresh look at NRC’s achievement in Afghanistan and its options ahead. This case study of the Afghanistan YEP activities can be used to highlight future practice in the migration sector globally.

Internal displacement and the development of informal settlements in Afghanistan are key humanitarian and development challenges for policy makers to address, and growing concerns in an uncertain context of transition. This third research study by Samuel Hall on the living conditions and protection concerns of internally displaced persons (IDPs) contributes to the knowledge base required to mainstream protection in humanitarian and development priorities and interventions.

There are over 50 informal settlements in Kabul (KIS) where mainly returnee and IDP households live in extreme poverty and vulnerability. The working population in KIS can be identified as low-skilled and economically disadvantaged workers. In such a context, skills upgrading can be an effective policy intervention to strengthen the local integration of the working poor and can lead to poverty reduction in KIS. Thus, vocational training may lead to increased productivity and higher income next to the working poor in KIS, if it is designed based on the realities of the labour market in Kabul.