WUNRN
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES FOR AFGHANISTAN'S FEMALE YOUTH POPULATION
By Dr. Massouda Jalal
Founding
Chairperson of Jalal Foundation
and Former
Minister of Women, Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of
the countries with very high percentage of youth population. Its youth
population represents 40 percent of the total, and 68 percent of all Afghans
are 25 years old and below[1][1].
Female youths comprise nearly half of these figures. Their employment challenges are inextricable
to the prevailing issues in their political, economic and cultural contexts. As
known to the world, Afghanistan has been battered by armed conflict for more
than three decades now. This reality had seriously devastated its economic
base, weakened its human capacities, and fuelled massive poverty across the
county. Some 36 percent of Afghans still
live below the poverty line[2][2] despite more than 641 billion
dollars of international assistance for Afghanistan’s peace and reconstruction
efforts.
The Afghan economy is
just beginning to breathe again and is still too frail to absorb the employment
needs of its people. According to a 2013
survey of The Asia Foundation, many Afghans consider unemployment as one of the
most serious obstacles to national progress[3][3].
The national unemployment rate was estimated at 35 percent in 2008[4][4]. Although recent figures are not
officially available, unemployment is believed to be sharply rising because
some 400,000 youths enter the labor market annually and the economy is not
creating as many job opportunities to absorb them.
Expectedly, in the stiff
competition for limited employment opportunities, the female youth are the ones
who are always left out. Part of the reasons is the wide gender gap in youth
literacy. While the male youths’ literacy rate for age 15-25 is 49 percent, the
figure for females in the same age bracket is only 18 percent[5][5]. The more serious factors that
sustain their marginalization in the labor market stem from a patriarchal
culture that considers them as unequal, less capable, less in need of
employment, and inappropriate for many tasks, such as travelling, late-night
assignment, interacting with male clients, or working in public places. The National Youth Policy of Afghanistan, for
example, recognizes that “young women
have fewer work opportunities than men” and substantiates it by citing
Afghanistan’s employment-to-
population ratio of 80 percent for males and only 43 percent for
females. It states that the gender gap in employment is “mainly due to conservative cultural attitudes which limit the role of
women in public spaces and prevent many girls and young women from attending schools,
trainings, and work outside their homes.”[6][6]
There are some
female youths who are able to find gainful employment. However, their
vulnerability to degrading treatment, sexual harassment in public places and in
the workplace, and discrimination in promotion, task allocation and access to
training opportunities constrain them from being productive and staying in
their job. The pressures of early marriage, frequent pregnancy, caring for
aging members of the family, and widespread insecurity in public places often
force a young woman to abandon employment. Violence against women (VAW) is also
a deterrent to young women’s economic productivity. Studies
on domestic violence in Afghanistan reveal that one in three girls were victims
of sexual violence and 62.5 percent experienced physical violence[7][7]. In
addition, work-related decisions of young women are circumscribed by consent or
permission from conservative family heads and other male relatives who often
object to training or promotion opportunities that put women in the company of
male colleagues.
Unfortunately, activism
for gender equality is not yet burgeoning in the private sector or in labor
unions. Cases of gender-based
discrimination are many, but in the absence of effective mechanisms for
redress, they remain hidden and young women pay the consequences in ways that
make protective policies look like a parody.
OPPORTUNITIES
Afghanistan is still in
a precarious transition journey towards peace and democracy. Extremism,
disunity among ethnic lines, and dominance of oligarchs in the political scene
still make it difficult for Afghans to hope with certainty for a better
tomorrow. Yet, as far as employment opportunities for female youth is concerned,
there are a few strategic developments that could be cited as potential sources
of opportunities.
1.
Adoption
of the National Youth Policy - One
of the biggest and most recent opportunities for promoting employment for
female youth was the adoption of the National Youth Policy by the Afghan
government. The policy is designed to serve as take off point for a
comprehensive strategy to develop the youth sector, including their economic
potentials. It provides that it will “promote
sustainable youth entrepreneurship through increased access of youth to
finances, increased financial literacy and business skills, opportunities to
gain work experiences, and the establishment of youth job centers”.
The National Youth
Policy also gives strong focus on the interest of female youth and their access
to employment. It commits to promote trainings on gender issues in the
workplace, build the capacity of girls and young women, and develop a National Youth Employment Action Plan
which includes creation of sex-disaggregated data on labor and employment,
apprenticeships and internships, youth job centers nationwide, overseas
employment for youth, and jobs within the civil service.
2.
Implementation
of commitments to the youth -The
implementation of the promises under the National Youth Policy is expected to
face challenges. Nevertheless, the youth agenda received prominence in the
party platforms of candidates during the recent presidential election. The
youth voters, especially in the urban centers, also
campaigned hard to get their voices heard and their visibility in the electoral
process indicated a vibrant youth constituency that the new government could
not afford to ignore. Under the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Deputy
Minister of Youth Affairs is mandated to ensure the effective implementation of
the National Youth Policy and concerned agencies of government, including the
Ministry of Women’s Affairs and its provincial branches, are tasked to support
the implementation of the policy within their respective areas of coverage.
3.
Initiatives
for youth empowerment - Youth empowerment is
among the priorities of some international agencies that support the
reconstruction efforts of Afghanistan. The World Bank, for example, is supporting
the government to implement the Afghanistan
Access to Finance Project, a 50-million dollar program to improve access to
credit for micro, small and medium enterprises. This project will target the
ultra-poor and is a potential source of resources for self-employment of poor
female youth. USAID and UN Habitat also cooperate with the government to
implement the Youth Empowerment Project
which creates a national network for 120 female and male youth groups whose
members are equipped with skills to participate in the economic life of their
communities. USAID is also supporting a Basic Education, Literacy and
Technical-Vocational Education and Training (BELT) and Skills Training for
Afghan Youth (STAY) which includes the development of female youths’ economic
productivity. The World Bank’s Adolescent Girls’ Initiative which was
implemented to help adolescent girls and young women to succeed in the labor
market is also worth mentioning. There
are other similar initiatives, but the point is not to enumerate all of them.
The point is to raise the question of how they help promote the entry and
retention of female youth in the workplace.
OPTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The challenges to the employment of
female youth in Afghanistan are interwoven into the general hardships of the
people and the gender issues that confront Afghan women in general. It is clear
that in the case of Afghanistan, so much needs to be done to correct the
significant gaps on female youth’s employment. Some of the options that could
be considered are:
a)
Eliminate harmful practices that prevent girls
and female adolescents from completing their training and education,
such as child/forced marriage, violence against women, insecurity in public
spaces, forced and frequent pregnancy, and restrictions to their mobility. These are already in the agenda of
government. However, more actions are needed to widen the coverage of
interventions and create a compelling and enduring impact nationwide.
b)
Invest in high quality education of adolescents
and girls to ensure that they will be
competitive in the job market, especially in areas that are most needed in the
country. This means investing in scholarships for girls in new professional
fields such as information and communication technology as well as in careers
that are traditionally dominated by men such as law, diplomacy, trade,
commerce, management, journalism and mining. Jalal Foundation has been helping
brilliant female youth to pursue education overseas with the help of
international partners. If programs like this could be expanded, it will go a
long way in helping promote their competitiveness and employability. The
creation of a special fund for advanced education of the brightest Afghan women
and girls is recommended.
c)
Ensure a women-friendly work environment
by developing and implementing a gender sensitive labor inspectorate program that prescribes the basic conditions for
a gender sensitive workplace. These may include gender awareness of supervisors
and male colleagues; presence of mechanisms to prevent and punish sexual
harassment, demeaning attitudes toward women, and discrimination in hiring,
training and promotion; and existence of policies and measures that support the
needs of female workers such as child care and nursing facilities, clean and
secured toilets and diaper-changing facilities, transportation support, and
pertinent leave privileges. Conferment
of awards to recognize gender sensitive employers should be initiated by concerned
institutions of government and civil society organizations.
d)
Educate labor unions and employees’ associations
on women’s rights as workers and the importance of their roles and
contributions in achieving economic progress and motivate them to include
women’s agenda in their negotiation and bargaining agreement priorities.
Promote a quota policy on the representation of women in the decision making
bodies of such labor unions and employees’ associations and capacitate women
union leaders on negotiation tactics, leadership, management, and effective
communication techniques. Disseminate
case models of gender sensitive labor unions and if possible, promote
cross-border study missions to expose unionists to good practices in gender
sensitive labor advocacy in the workplace.
e)
Introduce a quota policy in sectors where women’s
participation falls below 30 percent. Many women oppose the idea of a quota. But
this is not a bad idea and this is supported by Article 4 of the UN Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women. Afghanistan has a 25 percent quota provision
on the representation of women in the Parliament and this provision went a long
way in securing quantitative and qualitative representation of women and their
concerns. For example, since mining is a
high value sector at this point in time of the country’s economy, this sector
should adopt a quota policy that will result in at least 30 percent
representation of women in mines policy mechanisms and in technical and
administrative positions.
Poverty
is a cause and an outcome of women’s subordination and this link is
inextricable. The future of the world belongs to the youth. Let the youth lead
in determining the global vision of tomorrow. And as they do, let them be
reminded that investments on women’s advancement is not an option, nor an
accommodation or a luxury. It is a strategic imperative that this world cannot
do away with in defining a-post 2015 development agenda that is sustainable and
meaningful to all.
[1][1] Central Statistics Office, Statistical Yearbook, Afghanistan, 2011.
[2][2] CIA World Factbook, 2013, http://www.indexmundi.com/afghanistan/population_below_poverty_line.html, retrieved 4/16/2014.
[4][4] Index Mundi, Afghanistan Economy Profile 2013, http://www.indexmundi.com/afghanistan/economy_profile.html, retrieved 4/16/2014.
[5][5] UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report 2009 Statistics, 2009. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Afghanistan/Background
[6][6] National Youth Policy, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, 2014.
[7][7] Global Rights Report, 2008.