1. 1 Swedish Committee for Afghanistan Livelihood Project (Female Economic Empowerment Project) Presenter: Fawad Sultani

2. 2 About SCA The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) is a non for profit non-governmental organization working to assist in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. Operations started in Afghanistan in 1982 on an emergency basis, which subsequently evolved into long term development programmes in the sector of Health, Education, Rehabilitation of Disability, and Rural Development and cross cutting issues such as Human rights and Gender and Civil Society. SCA is today active in 17 provinces of Afghanistan with more than 6000 employees.

3. 3

4. 4 Concept of Livelihood Project Local Market Low quality materials Female Weaver’s dependency on local traders Old looms Best quality materials Independency of weavers & capital provision Vocational training & new looms Exhibition, national market and marketing The project goal is To make female carpet weavers, who work for traders, independent and enable them to act as entrepreneurs in the carpet market than labour

5. 5 Scope of Project Started on pilot basis in Kunduz in 2008 Covered 138 Families Gradual Expansion covering 366 families (950 women) Donor: Forum Syd from Sweden

6. 6 Project Key Features Community Economic Empowerment (Especially Women) Female highly involved in Business Association Decision making Improvement of Carpet Industry (Afghanistan’s Competitive Product) Institutional Development (Business Associations) Capacity Building of Civil Society Partners/Government institutions Next Level: Private Sector Development

7. 7 Generic Model of Livelihood Project 1. Market Survey & Project Area selection 2. Community Mobilization & Family survey 3. Committee formation & Beneficiary selection 4. Capacity Building & Vocational Trg 5. Loan Distribution & Technical support 6. BP Implementation (Marketing, financial & organizational plan) 7. Loan collection & Material distribution 8. SHG concept & BP follow up 9. Sustainability & Phase out Note: This model can be applied for any Livelihood intervention

8. 8 Step 1: Market Survey & Project Area Selection Market analysis through carpet trader’s union and Afghan Carpet Exporter Guild (ACEG). Selection of project target area based on following criteria: –Geographical consideration (convenient to manage) –Security consideration –Interest of local people –Their experience in carpet weaving –Working as a labour for traders –Using old carpet equipments

9. 9 Step 2: Community Mobilization & Family survey Primary meetings with targeted CDC members, community scholars and elders to obtain their commitment and support. Project awareness Holding workshops with targeted families for finding community needs in carpet issues Door to door baseline survey covering different key topics relevant to project.

10. 10 Step 3: Committee formation & Beneficiary Selection Forming committee and election of committee volunteer board members (both male & female committees) Identifying the poor eligible weavers who are working as labourer for traders or working daily wage and selecting project boundaries Selection of beneficiary families are based on following criteria: –Poor Women & Widow families –To be proposed and guaranteed by elected committee –Having ongoing carpet weaving business –Income mainly depends on carpet weaving –Working as a labour daily wage

11. 11 Step 4: Capacity Building and vocational training for male and female Training for committee members on their key responsibilities (managing revolving loan, office bearers, etc) Business related trainings (Marketing, quality control, production process etc) Technical training for carpet weavers (carpet weaving techniques, introduction of improved carpet looms and weaving by hook, etc)

12. 12 Carpet Weaving Training

13. 13 Step 5: Loan distribution and technical support Loan Afs 12,000/family for 14 months. Purchase Carpet Material in Bulk Record keeping within the association Regular technical support through ACEG Regular on job capacity building

14. 14 Step 6: Business Plan implementation Organizational Plan: –Setting up Business Association structure and staffing (Marketing officer, quality controller (female only) & finance person) –Train association staff on their key responsibilities Product Plan: –How to purchase raw material and which quality –Market acceptable product qualities to produce Marketing Plan –How to do marketing for their products –How to sell products –How to gain contracts for their products Financial Plan –How to cover their association running cost including salaries independently (Commission on carpet sale, membership fee and quality assurance fee) –How to properly manage their revolving loan and SHG money

15. 15 Business Plan Workshop

16. 16 Business Plan Workshop

17. 17 Step 7: Loan collection and material distribution To collect loan on loan maturity date To distribute 6 m 2 carpet material/family to form village capital. Donation of improved carpet looms Create internal force for loan repayment

18. 18 Step 8: Self Help Group (SHG) & Business Plan Follow up Establishment of village capital generation system (SHG) Donated carpet material will generate the initial capital Saving on bulk purchasing Regular contribution of small amount The capital can be used for carpet weaving business or multi-purposes To ensure BP is implemented and SHG is directly contributing to sustainability of BP implementation.

19. 19 Self Help Group

20. 20 Step 9: Sustainability and Phase out The phase out plan in each village will be implemented after 2.5 to 3 years. It will be ensured that BP system is in placed and community is able to run it. It will be ensured that community can afford Association running cost and SHG concept is followed. Business Association is formally registered under ACEG Kunduz branch and regular contact is in place.

21. 21 Project Impact Women are managing their own business Their income is increased up to 130%. Women are the sole decision makers for managing the SHG capital. Women can share their ideas in village decision making to a greater extent

22. 22 Main Challenges and Solutions Men acceptance of female being the key actors in the project –Comprehensive mobilization and awareness Lack of Qualified female vocational trainers –Trained female from previous villages act as trainer Loan repayment –Internal Community force and overall village capital Market trends –ACEG and Business Plan implementation Lack of female access to supply chain –It still remains a challenge

23. 23 Carpet Exhibition from SCA Livelihood Project

24. 24 Thanks a lot Questions and Suggestions are most welcome