AREDP Annual Report

Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT
2014
Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program
TOGETHER TOWARDS A COMPETITIVE AFGHANISTAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Message from the Executive Director of AREDP
AREDP in Numbers
AREDP Overview
1
2
4
Community-Based Enterprise Development
6
Community Facilitation
6
Enterprise Development
7
Access to Finance
11
Enterprise Development for People with Disabilities
11
Enterprise Development for People with Koochies
13
Business Development Service Providers
13
Small and Medium Enterprise Development Facilitation
15
Creating Market Linkages to the market and Capacity Building
One District One Product Initiative
15
15
16
Multiplier Farm Enterprise
16
Cross-Cutting Issues
17
Gender
Training and Development
17
17
18
Monitoring, Evaluation and Research
19
Management Information System
19
Innovation Awards for SMEs
AREDP OVERVIEW
Environmental and Social Safeguard
ACRONYMS:
AREDP Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program
BDSO Business Development Support Officers
BDSP Business Development Support Provider
EGs Enterprise Groups
ESMF Environment and Social Management Framework
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MAIL Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock
MFIs Microfinance Institutions
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MRRD Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NSP
National Solidarity Program
PEFs Provincial Enterprise Facilitators
PMO Program Management Office
PO Provincial Office
SGs Saving Groups
USD United States Dollars
VFs Village Facilitators
VSLAs Village Saving and Loan Associations
WB World Bank
AREDP PROGRAM COVERAGE IN AFGHANISTAN
A Message from the Executive
Director of AREDP
Dear Reader,
At the beginning of the year, we have the opportunity to reflect
on what we have accomplished and how we can improve
services to our communities. Within the Afghanistan Rural
Enterprise Development Program (AREDP) at the Ministry of
Rural Rehabilitation and Development we have a clear vision:
‘To improve employment opportunities and income of rural men
and women and the sustainability of targeted local enterprises’.
With this intend, the essence of our work aims to create an
enabling environment for enterprise development in the rural
areas of selected provinces in Afghanistan.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) were supported and
given a platform to participate in various capacity building and
learning opportunities as well as partaking in exposure visits
which help to promote rural value-added products at national
and international levels.
During 2014, considering the political and economic transition
in the country, AREDP made an impact on the lives of rural
populations by equipping them with entrepreneurship skills
and creating sustainable employment opportunities. This has
been done through working with existing communities and
entering new communities to establish community-based
self-help groups which mobilize resources, create rural-based
enterprises and provide services to rural communities.
Through the combined efforts of partners, donors and
dedicate employees, I am confident that we are moving
ahead to improve the life of people in the rural communities
and ultimately together we will create a competitive and
prosperous Afghanistan. Thank you!
Furthermore, these community-based groups did not only
provide a platform for mobilizing and utilizing members’
savings, but they also created a forum for rural men and
women to come together to identify their needs and develop
actions plans to address them together with community
members. The platform enables the sharing of ideas and
exchanging of best practices on improving livelihoods and
enterprises.
Rahmatullah Qurashi
Executive Director of AREDP
2015 will be a critical year for AREDP. We will be closing
Phase I and preparing for Phase II, during which AREDP will
increase its scope and outreach to include more provinces in
Afghanistan to replicate best practices and lessons learned.
This is particularly significant in the case of women-led
community-based groups which have proven and shown
rural women as key decision makers and contributors within
the household equally with the menfolk. Of all the selfhelp groups, AREDP has triumphantly established over
64% women-led savings groups which has provided loan to
communities.
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
AREDP IN
NUMBERS
28
6
PROVINCES
COVERED
62,399
MEMBERS
TRAINED
DISTRICTS
COVERED
933
VILLAGES
231.0
MILLION AFS
SAVED
650
COVERED
89,399
SAVING GROUPS
MEMBERS
SMES
SUPPORTED
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
AREDP IN
NUMBERS
8,158
2,037
ENTERPRISE GROUP
ESTABLISHED
28,201
LOAN DISBURSED
TO MEMBERS
SAVING GROUP
ESTABLISHED
539
VSLA
20,892
ESTABLISHED
JOB
CREATED
8,013
16,897
LOAN DISBURSED
TO FEMALE MEMBERS
ENTERPRISE
MEMBERS
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Overview: A year of progress towards creating a competitive
Afghanistan
Overview: A year of progress towards creating a competitive
Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Programme (AREDP) is
“AREDP strengthens the private sector
through integrated, value chain, top to
bottom knowledge-based interventions,
bottom to top community enterprise
development and by addressing credit
and capital needs at all levels and in all
locations”
a national government-led multi-donor funded program that jumpstarts and facilitates private sector growth in rural Afghanistan. The
program strengthens the private sector through integrated, value
chain, top to bottom knowledge-based interventions, bottom to
top community enterprise development and by addressing credit
and capital needs at all levels and in all locations. The key principle
of AREDP includes supporting market orientation, sustainable
businesses, improving coordination, building partnerships, facilitating
client decisions, sharing best practices and vertical integration.
AREDP is focusing on two components: Community-based Enterprise
Development that provides knowledge-based and financial services
to community-based rural enterprises; and Small and Medium
Enterprise (SME) development which provides business advisory and
financial services to rural SMEs. Under these two components AREDP
undertakes the following interventions:
Community Mobilization: The community mobilization component
paves the way for the critical and early stages of AREDP’s entry into
villages to facilitate communities to form and nurture Saving Groups
(SGs) and Enterprise Groups (EGs) thereby promoting micro savings at
the community level.
Community-based Enterprise Development: With the objective
of strengthening enterprise development, AREDP works towards
maximizing the potential of increasing incomes and creating jobs in
rural enterprises. Through this component AREDP encourages rural
entrepreneurs who are members of SGs and are already in similar value
chains to come together and form EGs.
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Access to Finance: Access to Finance involves identifying mature SGs
“I had a small livestock farm and I used to earn
and federating them in groups of eight to ten to form a VSLA. Once
2,000 to 3,000 Afs per month, however, I had
the SGs are established and nurtured, the aces to finance component
serious economic problems. Then I became a
provides opportunities for affordable credit to initiate business.
member of a saving group in my village that was
established by AREDP and received a loan to
Small and Medium Enterprise Development: AREDP selects and
further enhance my business. Today I have four
supports rural enterprises that have potential and ability to contribute
cows, a calf and two sheeps in my livestock farm,
to SME sector growth. The support includes mobilizing potential
my income has increased and my economy has
SMEs, building their capacity and creating market linkages with other
improved significantly.”
business service providers.
- Nargis from Nangarhar
Business Development Support for SMEs: AREDP carries a series
of awareness raising interventions on the availability of local and
inexpensive business development services and the importance of
engaging managerial and technical support. It also helps SMEs to
identify appropriate business providers within rural areas.
Gender Mainstreaming: AREDP recognizes the importance of gender
equality and mainstreams it across its programming at all levels.
‘Our enterprise was able to penetrate the market
At the community level, AREDP always searches gender sensitive
easily and made good profit. This success we owe
interventions so that women equally participate in communities and
to AREDP, they taught us how to create linkages
contribute to improved livelihood.
to the market and it certainly increased number
of our clients and now we are producing and sell-
Environmental and Social Safeguards: AREDP ensures that all
ing more than we expected”.
the supported activities do not add to environmental degradation
Bahar Enterprise , Parvan
and safeguards beneficiaries. Communities are protected by any
detrimental by-product if any, by the implemented activities.
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Community members were facilitated by the Provincial Enterprise
Facilitators and Village Facilitator to
form SG.
COMPONENT A: COMMUNITY - BASED ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Over 80% of the people of Afghanistan live in rural areas where
agriculture is the primary activity and contributes about one
third of the GDP. However, a weak economic factor, lack of
access to market, insufficient infrastructure and lack of business
development services are limiting the economic development
potential of this sector and constraining on-farm and non-farm
8,158
SAVING GROUPS
ESTABLISHED
employment opportunities, thus perpetuating poverty in the
rural areas.
933
VILLAGES
COVERED
Community Facilitation
AREDP initiates its work by mobilizing the communities
to establish community- based self-help groups – Saving
Groups - a platform for communities to come together to join
resources and create common financial assets. In 2014, AREDP
covered additional 168 villages to establish 2,139 SGs. Once the
communities are brought together and the SGs are formed, the
next stage is to support and encourage the communities to save
4,214
FEMALE SGS
and manage community fund.
AREDP aims to reduce poverty through improving employment
opportunities and income of men and women from rural areas
as well as improving the sustainability aspect of targeted
local enterprises. A leading priority for AREDP is to unleash
enterprise development potential within rural communities of
selected provinces in Afghanistan and create job opportunities
for rural men and women. With this intend in mind, AREDP have
ESTABLISHED
accomplished the following key interventions throughout the
year:
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Members of the community have
been discussing savings and booking system
During 2014, community member saved 81.3 million Afs and total
saving increased to 218.9 million Afs cumulatively. Community
members were able to access small-scale loans and 11,888 loans
were disbursed to community members involved in different
small-scale business; out of the total 7,385 loans were disbursed by
women-led SGs.
Availability of loan has facilitated these communities to initiate
103.1
MILLION AFS
SAVED BY FEMALE SG
small-scale enterprise development. Women participation in
particular was encouraged during community mobilization; women
members have been actively engaged in establishing these selfhelp groups.
218.9
MILLION AFS
SAVED
Enterprise Development
The next stage of AREDP interventions is to encourage rural
entrepreneurs, in particular those who are members of SGs, to
engage in various rural enterprises development activities from
the same value chain. AREDP established 876 EGs in 2014, making
2,037 EG in total. The supported EGs that are engaged in smallscale production, processing and marketing of on-farm and offfarm products. The EGs are involved in over 15 sectors and 30
sub-sectors, with the key ones being carpet weaving, making
AREDP has demonstrated that women are equal members of
handicrafts, livestock and milk processing, and food processing.
community and contribute proportionately to the economical
development of household. Women participation was attained by
raising awareness of community members on the importance of
the program and its relevance to rural women since it helps them
work from home to generate income and simultaneously take care
of family and house.
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The loan from SG changed Mohammad Ali life and now he is successfully entrepreneur in his village.
SPOTLIGHT: WITHOUT AREDP SUPPORT I WOULD STILL BE A CASUAL
LABORER   
Mohammad Ali comes from Posh Bagh village, Dahdadi district
Mohammad Ali’s bakery business went well and he was able
of Balkh province. He is 45 years old and owner of a bakery in
to cover his basic home expenses, as well as repaying the loan
Posh Bagh. He never had an opportunity to go through a formal
amount. Later, Mohammad Ali improved his shop by getting a
education process all his life. Previously he worked as a casual
table and a place for bread and yeast processing.
construction laborer. Every morning he went to the center of
the village and would wait for people to pick him up for any
Initially, Mohammad Ali was able to sell 100 breads per day, and
construction work. He recalls that he had to feed ten people in
now sells up to 700 per day, including taking orders from larger
his family. There were times when he could not find any work and
customers. To expand his business, Mohammad Ali acquired
would came home without any wages.
another shop next to his bakery and now also sells wheat flour.
Mohammad Ali’s business not only provides a viable source of
Mohammad Ali’s life was very difficult. Life began to improve
livelihoods for him and his family, it also is a source of livelihoods
for Mohammad Ali with the setting up of a SG in his village. He
for six people that are working for him. Mohammad Ali thanks
became a member and also elected as leader of Posh Bagh SG.
AREDP for the support and states that without AREDP I would
As part of AREDP support to the SG, an Enterprise Development
still be a casual laborer.
Training was conducted for the members, and Mohammad Ali
was chosen to participate in the training. During the training,
Mohammad Ali is not content with the current state of his
Mohammad Ali learned basic business development techniques
business. He is planning to expand his bakery business by
and also showed enthusiasm to establish a bakery in his village.
obtaining modern technology for making bread. He also plans
to buy a motorbike to deliver bread to his larger bulk customers.
Mohammad Ali was the first borrower and took 19,000 Afs loan
Given Mohammad Ali’s track record, he is bound to do well as his
from SG and bought basic equipment along with wheat flour to
bakery business expands.
start his business.
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Women from Hirat are being trained
in community finance management.
1.1
2,037
EGS
ESTABLISHED
52%
SALES
INCREASED IN EGS
The products produced by EGs were not only covered the needs of
rural communities, but were sold in the urban market as well where
there is high level of demand for agricultural products. Through this,
the EGs income increased in the short span of time with limited
resources.
The technical trainings, advisory support and provision of simple
technology that was made available by AREDP helped boost
businesses as well as increase productivity. Ultimately, the members
were able to generate income as well as create job.
Gradually the small-scale enterprise increase sales and employment
and AREDP facilitate the process of graduating from micro to small
enterprises. Only in 2014, 32 enterprises reached the threshold of
AFG 250,000 as business assets with minimum number of three
employees and graduated from micro to small enterprise level.
Furthermore, AREDP makes an effort to expose the entrepreneurs
to local and national markets where they not only promote local
rural products but also learn from other entrepreneurs in the same
business. AREDP is committed to continuously support the capacity
building of rural entrepreneurs and provide training, from basic to
more comprehensive technical skills development.
19%
EMPLOYMENT
INCREASED IN EGS
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Halima life has changed after she
has borrowed from SG and now she
is creating income and support her
family.
SPOTLIGHT: FATIMA, A BUSINESS INSPIRATION FOR HER FELLOW VILLAGERS
Fatima is 38 years old from Khatem-ul-Anbiya village, Guzara
Today, Fatima is a business inspiration to her fellow villagers.
district of Herat province. Like any other woman from her village,
Through her embroidery work, she financially supports her family
Fatima is a house wife and taking care of a family of nine people.
and with three female workers she is planning to expand her
Although she did not complete her higher education due to
business throughout the district.
security issues in her village, she is very capable and realized that
she can do more to support her family.
“I am immensely thankful to AREDP for supporting my business.
Now I am able to produce more goods, market my products and
Fatima’s husband is working in the market and making 300 Afs
support my family,” said Fatima. Fatima also requested AREDP
per day, but this is not sufficient for the needs of her entire family.
to further deliver such services so other women could realize that
Fatima has learned embroidery work and decided to start this
they too can improve their lives and be productive members of
business to further support her family, yet she had difficulties
society by using these available opportunities.
in the very beginning. A year ago, she heard about AREDP and
she became an active member of the saving group of her village
Baside from owning a successful business, Fatima s also teaching
established by AREDP.
embroidery work to other women. Despite already having three
students, she intends to attract more women to train so they too
She received a 15,000 Afs loan from the SG for enhancing her
could support their families.
business. She also participated in a training program on marketing
and enterprise development facilitated by AREDP. Through the
training she has learnt how to handle her business and market her
products
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Halima is receiving loan to
extend her business.
125.6
MILLION AFS
Access to Finance
In order to create access to affordable micro-finance at the
community level, AREDP federates mature SGs into groups of
eight to ten to form Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA).
SAVED
The purpose of a VSLA is to provide simple savings and loan
facilities in communities that do not have easy access to formal
financial services and record keeping. During 2014, 69 million Afs
was saved by VSLAs and in total 125.6 million Afs accumulated
from the outset of the program. In total 2,918 members borrowed
from VSLAs to expand business opportunities in the rural areas.
361
VSLA
ESTABLISHED
Enterprise Development for People with Disability.
AREDP enters communities and ensures all members, including
those from marginalized groups –physically challenged and koochies,
equally benefit from the program. The thirty years of conflict affected
people of Afghanistan significantly and in particular it has left many
people with physical disabilities. It is estimated that over 850,000
people in Afghanistan suffer from various from of disabilities and
most of them are deprived from access to job or employment
opportunities.
Traditionally, people with disabilities have not been exposed even
to basic education in Afghanistan and gradually became burden for
AREDP supported the VSLAs to establish internal lending system
as well as provide guidance on how to better manage community
fund. Out of the total VSLAs, 205 have been registered with MRRD.
AREDP also provided seed capital to 125 VSLAs that are actively
providing loan to members of the community using Islamic mode
of financing mechanism. The VSLAs support a huge range of
sectors in the targeted provinces such as agriculture, handicraft,
livestock, poultry, food processing etc and have provided more
then 125.6 million Afs to the members.
families and communities. AREDP initiated a pilot program focused
on People With Disabilities (PwD) and identified over 500 people
with physical disabilities that have potential to start business in rural
areas of targeted provinces. Through this program, AREDP selects
140 entrepreneurs with physical disabilities who includes them in the
business incubation process.
Regular support and monitoring was provided through incubation
process and ultimately the selected PwDs were discharge to
independently operate businesses. The PwDs established business
in various sectors like embroidery, poultry, tailoring, tinsmith,
mechanics, carpentry, shop keeping, beauty parlor, transportation
services etc. and have been generating steady income to support
family members.
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PWD life has changed once he
opened a shop
SPOTLIGHT: AREDP BELIEVES IN SOCIAL INCLUSION AND GIVES HOPE FOR
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
AREDP selects potential entrepreneurs with physical disabilities
Through the AREDP support, Baryalay was exposed to a number
and includes them in the incubation process and provide technical
of Enterprise Development training and this was a turning point in
and material assistance if needed. Abdul Bashir is one of the
his life. Inspired by what he learnt through the training, Baryalay
recipients of the program who has physical disability.
along with his cousin, borrowed money from the SG and from a
friend and established shop for vehicle spare parts in Qarabagh
Abdul Bashir comes from Big Mohammad Khil village in Bagram
village. They bring spare parts from the bordering areas of Pakistan
district of Parwan and he is the breadwinner of the family
and sell them in Bagram market.
comprising of eight people. At the outset, Abdul Bashir had hard
time to find a job where he can fit and earn income until he was
Baryalay now makes almost 1500 Afs per day. His face was shining
selected as a member of a SG in his village.
when he said ‘I make enough to send my children to school
and I even bought a motorbike to go home everyday to see my
Abdul Bashir was provided with training opportunity and given
children’. AREDP has brought hopes in the lives of other PWDs in
exposure to business skills and access to market. He was also
Afghanistan.
provided with support to establish his own grocery shop. Now
Abdul Basher is earning 700-1000 Afghani per day.
Similar is the story of Baryalay, a koochi from Bagram district,
Parwan province. He lost one of his legs in explosion while he was
farming on his small land holding, two years ago. Baryalay could
not work anymore; he was very frustrated and lost all hope to live.
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Formation of SGs in the koochi
community
Enterprise Development Support for Koochies
Koochies are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups
in Afghanistan. They have been affected by decades of conflict and
continue to be seasonally affected by harsh winters and draught.
55%
FEMALE KOOCHIES
SUPPORTED
The main source of the Koochies livelihood is livestock husbandry
and there is a huge potential for developing this sector to enterprise
development.
The concept of Roving facilitation was adopted by AREDP
specifically because of the nomadic lifestyle of koochies. AREDP
Through this initiative, AREDP assessed the situation and identified
certain obstacles that inhibit the koochies’ potential to develop,
promote and market livestock by-product. The assessment revealed
that there is lack of access to cost-effective and high quality inputs,
lack of access to the market, lack of awareness on business as well as
no access to modern technology.
AREDP introduced this initiative to address these obstacles by
developing the ability of Koochies to produce marketable products
and enhance entrepreneurial competencies. Under this initiative,
AREDP was able to create and develop business development
service through Roving facilitators that were selected from the
Koochi communities.
98
KOOCHIES
SUPPORTED
exposed 96 Koochies in the local market through creating market
linkage to urban areas. The koochies were also provided with sample
technology such as solar generator and portable fridges to keep
products safe and clean.
Business Development Service Providers Initiative
To encourage effective working environment and promote
quality business service, AREDP initiated the concept of Business
Development Service Providers (BDSP) where staff members at the
community are converted from regular employees to BDSP. The
BDSP concept encourages payment against work delivered rather
then time spent for service.
AREDP started this initiative on pilot basis and converted staff at
provincial and national level into BDSP. The BDSPs are building
the capacity of members of SGs, EGs and SMEs. This initiative
ensures that effective service is available at the ground to support
newly established enterprises. The concept proved that BDSPs are
comparatively effective in terms of delivering results and SGs, EGs
and SMEs are utilizing BDSPs on a regular basis to strengthen
enterprise development.
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Baryalai is a koochi from Parwan
who has established a small spear
parts shop in Bagram.
SPOTLIGHT: ACCESS TO MARKET WAS FACILITATED FOR MARGINALIZED
GROUPS LIKE KOOCHIES.
Baryalay, is one of the Koochies who took part in the AREDP
Now I started a shop to sell used spare parts in the market. I am very
Enterprise Development training. He comes from Barik Aab
happy that I can work and support my family”. Other Koochies look
village, Bagram district, Parwan province. He lost one of his legs
at Baryalay and they are motivated by the Koochies initiative that
in explosion while he was farming on his small land two years ago.
is being implemented by AREDP. They are waiting for the project to
expand in other areas of Parwan as well.
Baryalay was the bread winner of his family and since he could
not work anymore he was very frustrated and had no hope to live.
Once the Koochies project was launched by AREDP in Parwan,
Baryalay was included in the training program. This was the first
time Baryalay was ever exposed to such a training and that was an
eye opening experience for him.
Baryalay and his cousin were very inspired by this initiative they
borrowed money from a friend and started to establish vehicle
spare part shop in Bagram. Now they bring spare parts from the
border of Pakistan and sell in Bagram market. The training has
400
AFS PER DAY
AVERAGE KOOCHIES INCOME
given Baryalai so many ideas and inspiration, they want to continue
with the business in the coming months and expand it.
Now Baryalay has hope for life and makes enough money to
support his family. He says “I was jobless and I was not able to do
anything, I felt useless in my village. I was shepherd but could not
do it anymore.
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Women from Bamyan established
tailoring shop with AREDP support.
COMPONENT B: SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
Small and Medium Enterprise facilitation
The SME development component addresses constraints of the rural
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) towards sustainable
growth in Afghanistan. AREDP facilitates and supports the SME
sector in the rural Afghanistan by addressing business needs and
creating access to business development and financial services.
40%
SALES
INCREASED IN SMES
AREDP conducts Technical Feasibility and Economical Viability
Studies for the selected SMEs and identify opportunities to further
strengthen them through capacity building and technical support.
650 SMEs are currently being supported through AREDP and giving
job opportunities for men and women in the rural areas.
Creating linkages to the market and capacity building
for SMEs
Creating market linkages for SMEs at the national and international
level is one of the key aspects of AREDP work. In 2014 over 100 SME
owners participated in various exhibition in Kabul, Balkh and in India;
out of which 60 SMEs are female owned. The SMEs exposed and
promoted rural product in the market and were interacting with
other SMEs from the similar value chain.
650
SMES
DIRECTLY SUPPORTED
These exhibition also gave platform for entrepreneurs to understand
national and international client needs and how to upgrade quality
of products. AREDP was constantly building the capacity of the
SMEs established from the outset. Soft skills training such as
marketing, management, accounting, supply chain management
were delivered for SMEs, which have contributed to the increase of
sales and employment ultimately.
Innovation Award for SMEs:
In order to promote innovation in business, AREDP adopted
Innovation Award initiative among SMEs. This concept encourages
SMEs to come up with innovative business development ideas to
create job opportunities at the rural areas. The award is given based
on competition for the best idea that occurred in the last one year of
business. AREDP approved 57 applications for the Award in 2014.
20%
EMPLOYMENT
INCREASED IN SMES
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
A women with disability has established tailoring shop in her house and
providing service to communities.
One District One Product helped
to boost income of people growing
pomegranate in the market.
One District One Product
In 2014, AREDP introduced the concept of One District One
Product (ODOP) in Herat and Parvan after it was successfully
piloted in Kandahar in 2013. ODOP is a development model
that focuses on one valuable local resource that has potential
to showcase and market in order to develop it further. The idea
behind the concept is that each selected district should have
at least one competitive product that is distinctively its own to
offer to the market.
Afghanistan is predominantly agricultural country and
produces a variety of fruits and vegetable that are unique in
the region. In spite of these resources, the country has limited
capabilities when it comes to food processing and marketing.
AREDP discovered and supported potential enterprises at the
district level to become self-reliant and reach further maturity,
resulting in rural economic development and creating more
employment opportunities for men and women.
10,000
AFS
AVERAGE INCOME OF ODOP BENEFICIARIES
Multiplier Farm Enterprise
The Multiplier Farm Enterprise helps hundreds of people
in rural areas to grow products and maximize earning from
available land resources through intensive cropping system in
layers combined with pre-harvest and post-harvest technology.
AREDP assisted communities to build green houses, provided
training on cropping techniques and deliver sample technology
such as plastic tunnels, gardening and processing tools.
The project in Kandahar focused on pomegranate and grapes
where processors purchased product from farmer , process it
and sell in the local market. The ODOP in Parwan focuses on
dairy product and in Heart on improving tomato value chain.
In 2014, project beneficiaries produced significant amount of
products through the Multiplier Farm techniques and were able
to sell surplus in the local markets in the provinces.
The selected farmers were provided with technical assistance,
trainings and simple technology to promote these products.
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
1.1
2.2
Women are discussing handicraft
quailty in the village.
,1.1
COMPONENT C: CROSS CUTTING ISSUES
Gender Mainstreaming
AREDP seeks gender sensitive interventions iat all levels of
its programming and have been in particular successful to
mainstream women at the grass-roots level. Out of the total SGs
established in the targeted provinces, 53% are women-led and out
of the total EGs, 64% are owned by women. Women have been
53%
SGS
FEMALE-LED
actively borrowing funding to establish small-scale enterprises.
AREDP discovered that number of women-led community-based
groups are getting stronger, community based lending system
is increasing and more women have been getting engaged in
enterprise development in the rural areas.
AREDP involved 60 female- owned SMEs in various exhibitions
and provided them platform to create linkages with market at
national as well as international level. A large number of capacity
building activities were carried out during the year by AREDP
64%
EGS
where gender balance was one of the main criteria for selection.
FEMALE-LED
Environmental and Social Safeguard
Sound environmental management is crucial to sustainable rural
development and poverty reduction. Without committed efforts
to safeguard the environment, pressure will continue to build on
the environment and nature, which is source of livelihood for most
of AREDP beneficiaries. To prevent and mitigate undue harms,
AREDP establish Environmental and Social Safeguard standards
within its interventions and provides guidance and awareness
raising for EGs and SMEs in production enterprises.
In 2014, AREDP assessed 286 SMEs and 355 EGs and the
assessment indicated that 55% of the enterprises were operating
almost in compliance with AREDP’s Environmental and Social
Management Frameworks (ESMF) and 45% of AREDP supported
enterprises still need further effort to comply with Environmental
and Social Safeguards interventions. To address this, AREDP is
developing Environmental Management Plan for each enterprise
sector and so far brick making, dairy and fishery sectors plans are
developed in 2014.
Furthermore, AREDP established Grievance Redress Mechanism
(GRM) in at the field level to keep a track of complains from
communities and during the year 180 complaints have been
registered and addressed.
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Masooma is teaching her employees
to make clothes.
SPOTLIGHT: ‘POSHAK-E-JAWAN’ AN AFGHAN CLOTHING BRAND’
Masooma Ibrahimi is from a far valley of Azhdar in Bamyan
province. She was in Iran during civil war in Afghanistan and she
AREDP also provided Masooma with soft skills trainings in
returned from Iran, she has been working from home to make
accounting, supply chain management, social safeguard,
clothes for her family and neighbors in the village. As she was
marketing and business management.
gaining more clients, Masooma and her family established a small
shop in the center of Bamyan called Poshak-e-Jawan, however, the
After AREDP support, Masooma changed clothes design and
shop was very small and the income was hardly enough to bear
changed her marketing approach. Also she has computerized her
home expenses.
accounting system and knows how to select design from using
internet. In total 15 people are working for Masooma in Bamyan
In 2011, AREDP covered Bamyan and carried out business
and their monthly salary is 2500-3000 Afs. Masooma has plenty of
assessment; Poshak-e- Jawan was registered as one of the
skill and knowledge in this field and hosting other SMEs to come
potential SMEs. Initially, Poshak-e- Jawan received 12 days
and learn from their experience.
technical training and was given basics toolkits such as tailoring
machines, generator, iron etc. to further enhance the SME.
Recently Poshak-e- Jawan received a number of contracts from
local NGOs and also from schools to prepare uniforms. These
Subsequently, Masooma hired extra people and they were
contracts are giving a huge boost to her enterprise and gradually
producing more clothes and were looking for clients outside
she will expend her business and income of her employees will be
Bamyan. Masooma participated in a number of exhibitions in
increased. Poshak-e- Jawan continue to search new design and
Afghanistan and outside, through AREDP support she got ideas on
trends from various source including visiting exhibitions in order
how to produce clothes using internet.
to enter market in the international level and attract more clients.
Now her products are of high quality, trendy and at the same time
Masooma said: “My life has changed dramatically after I got
include Afghan traditional patterns. This makes her product unique
training from AREDP, this training has given me new prospect in
and appealing in the market. Currently, Poshak-e- Jawan produces
my business and the exposure visits gave me new horizons.”
clothes and sells in Bamyan through outlet opened recently and in
Kabul through individual entrepreneurs.
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
Women are working and generating
income in Safron SME in Herat.
Training and Capacity Building
The Training and Capacity Building is a very critical component
to further improve women participation in the program. The RME
of AREDP program. In 2014 8,699 members of SGs, VSLAs
Unit also carried out Enterprise Group Assessment in 2014. The
and EGs in the provinces were trained; out of which 4,965 were
findings of the report were used to direct AREDP program in the
female member participants. The trainings were in the areas of
next phase. During the year 2014, 3,634 visits were conducted to
Orientation and Community Mobilization, accounting, Leadership,
the field and feedback was provided to management on how to
membership, Credit investment, VSLA formation, book keeping,
improve support for beneficiaries.
marketing product promotion, Islamic financing and etc.
Management Information System
After each trainings post assessment was carried by the Training
The Management Information System (MIS) is a huge and critical
unit and it indicated satisfactory feedback from participants. In
support component within AREDP. It is organizing collecting and
additions manuals in Social Mobilisation, Enterprise Development,
tracking information related program. MIS team is constantly
Islamic Banking etc
training field team on how to better and accurately collect data.
were developed and distributed within
provinces.
It has also developed help-desk system that is being implemented
to strengthen reporting and date collocation from the field. The
The Research and Monitoring and Evaluation (RME)
system will tackle any issues with data and help improve the
The Research and Monitoring and Evaluation (RME) units
quality of data.
were combined into one unit in order to provide better services
to program in terms of identifying impact. In 2014, the RME
The MIS team also developed a Sharia compliant Loan verification
facilitated Gender Impact Assessment in Bamyan, Parwan and
system. The objective of the system is to record and determine
Nangarhar provinces. The broad objective of the Assessment was
loans as per the compliance of the Islamic Sharia Law. In additions,
to identify to what extend AREDP reached its targeted objectives.
the team set up electronic financial management system for
advance and mature SMEs. The SMEs were trained how to use the
In particular the study was looking into social economical impact
system and this has contributed to improving book keeping and
of women and if women covered under AREDP program creating
financial system.
employment and income in the rural areas. The finding of the
assessment helped AREDP management to address the gaps on
how
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AREDP
ANNUAL REPORT - 2014
CONNECT WITH US:
www.aredp-mrrd.gov.af
/aredp official
/aredp official
/aredp official
/aredp official
ADDRESS:
Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program
Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
Darulaman, Nila Bagh Road, Kabul, Afghanistan