Womens Economic Empowerment NPP

As described in the ANPDF, National Priority Program

for the Economic Empowerment of Women is founded in
the Afghan Constitutions guarantee of equal citizenship
rights for women. The gender strategy for achieving those
constitutional rights rests on five pillars:
Implementing our global commitment on human rights,
security, and freedom from domestic violence for women;
Ensuring full access to education and health services,
including to higher education;
A national program for womens economic empowerment;
Fully executing Afghanistans laws on equal rights and
protections;
Advancing women in government and business
The National Priority Programme on Womens Economic
Empowerment (WEE-NPP) is the third pillar of this
strategy. Increasing womens control over economic
assets and activities will bring about changes in social
norms and values. The NPP will provide start-up technical
and financial support to women-owned businesses,
job skills, and financial literacy. These investments
will complement and be delivered through existing
mechanisms and institutions, focusing on scalingup successful interventions. The NPP also improves
womens economic enabling environment through policy
and planning reforms that will remove legal barriers to
womens economic participation; streamline and reduce

regulatory barriers to womens involvement in marketing;

and improve the quality and use of gender statistics for
planning and monitoring womens economic progress.
The WEE-NPP is mindful of the need to involve men
throughout its design and management, both to ensure full
ownership and support and to lessen the risks of backlash.
Islamic scholars, traditional leaders, and community
development councils provide guidance and support for
the programme. The program design is flexible so that
different parts of the country can advance and adapt it in
accordance with their perceived needs and opportunities.
Rather than setting up new structures, the WEE-NPP takes
advantage of existing national and civil society programs
such as the Citizens Charter and Comprehensive
Agricultural Development NPP for delivering much of
its work. Overall coordination of the NPP is through the
Human Capital Development Council. Provincial governors
and councils provide regional coordination and support.
The WEE-NPP is composed of six programme
components which are divided into two-streams. The first
three components are facilitating activities that remove
constraints on womens economic activities. The last
three are targeted productive components that will help
women access resources, skills, and support.

1. Removing Legal Barriers

Objective: Legal barriers to economic participation are
removed, and women are better able to participate in
economic and social activities.
Identify, map and amend existing legislation that
prevents womens social and economic access
Ensure draft and new legislation do not create barriers
to womens participation
Raise awareness on legal rights, monitor
implementation of laws and policies

2. Capacity Building
Objective: Womens knowledge and skills to operate more
effectively at home and in the marketplace are increased.
Provide training in basic numeracy, literacy, and
financial management training
Provide demand-driven skills training to meet market
needs
Train women as agriculture, health, and education
professionals

3. Increasing the Accessibility and

Analysis of Gender Statistics
Objective: The availability of gender statistics about
womens participation in economic activities is increased,
and the government and CSOs capacity to track, analyse,
and use data is strengthened.
Review existing indicators and survey mechanisms, to
ensure relevant data for this NPP is captured
Improve availability of quality data analysis
Capture non-statistical data

4. Ensuring Inclusive Access to

Finance
Objective: Womens ability to expand their businesses is
increased.
Increase access to informal credit through village
savings groups
Business incubation and access to credit through
associations and cooperatives
Identify and eliminate bureaucratic constraints to
formal banking

5. Improving Access to Agricultural

Services and Markets
Objective: Womens engagement in agricultural markets
increased, enabling a transition from subsistence farming
to surplus production to improve food security and
increase household incomes.
Increase agricultural production, through kitchen

gardens, nurseries, and greenhouses for women.

Increase livestock production through the provision of
inputs and training.
Create regional centres for building the capacity of
women in agriculture and for direct linkage go markets.

6. Promoting Access to Creative

Economy Markets
Objective: Womens access to quality inputs, designs
and markets improved, facilitating export and income
generation for women undertaking creative activities.
Improve product quality and design
Promote womens products through embassies and
international trade forums
Simplify business processes for import and export
Aggregate marketing for export

Scope
The WEE-NPP is a national program. It will operate in all
34 provinces, though the sequencing of its roll-out and
the specific mix of activities will vary across Afghanistans
diverse regions.
The program is characterized by high levels of
voluntarism. Community-level programs will begin
operating only after Community Development Councils
have made a formal request to their provincial councils.
Women-focussed programs funded by civil society
organizations are welcome to join the national and
provincial coordination meetings.

Evaluation and Learning

Gender programs in conservative societies have a
checkered record of success. The WEE-NPP takes this
variance in outcomes as a learning opportunity. While at
one end the program design allows for sufficient flexibility
to conform to local values and acceptance, at the other
end the program includes opportunities for learning and
evaluation to feed back into each years programming
decisions and to inform national learning at large.

Status
An overall design document for the WEE-NPP has been
completed and shared within government and with
donors. Technical documents for the design of the six
components are in various stages of completion, with
most planning to meet the December cut-off date for
Steering Committee review. Only components that are
ready to go will be included in the 2017 budget.