Program Details: Afghanistan

History & Overview
Afghanistan is located in the heart of South Asia, bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is a culturally mixed nation, incorporating religious, ethno-linguistic and geographic links with most of its neighbors, and has long been a focal point for trade and migration. During its long history, Afghanistan has seen various invaders and conquerors and in the 19th century, became a "buffer state" between the British and Russian Empires as they gobbled up surrounding territory on either side.

In August 1919, Afghanistan regained full independence from the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, conditions ever since have not been particularly sanguine. Beginning in the late 1970s, Afghanistan has suffered continuous and brutal civil war, including foreign interventions in the form of the 1979 Soviet invasion and the 2001 U.S. invasion, in which the ruling Taliban government was toppled.

In December 2001, the UN Security Council created an International Security Assistance Force composed of NATO troops to assist the government of President Hamid Karzai. In 2005, the U.S. and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership agreement committing both nations to a long-term relationship.

Mercy Corps has been in Afghanistan since 1986, and we are currently assisting more than 2.5 million Afghans to stabilize and rebuild their lives. Dozens of our projects throughout the country focus on agricultural and economic development to build stronger communities.

Current Conditions in Afghanistan
At the present time, Afghanistan is an extremely dangerous country for Afghan nationals and foreign visitors alike. The huge power of the drug mafias and the weakness of the central government (particularly the police) are, along with armed resistance groups, the major drivers of conflict and insecurity in Afghanistan.

The security situation in the rural areas has deteriorated significantly since early 2007. The level of armed opposition in eastern Afghanistan - and the concomitant response of national and international military forces - has resulted in an enormously perilous environment for those civilians caught in the middle. Despite a brief rash of suicide bombings in Kunduz, northeastern Afghanistan continues to remain far safer and more stable then the south or the east.

Suicide bombings continue in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city, targeting government, police, national and international military, and private security companies alike. Crime, though largely unreported, remains the single most significant threat for everyone. It has also become increasingly difficult to control conflict between military forces and armed Afghan resisters in the provinces directly surrounding Kabul.

In summer 2007, there was a significant spike in civilian casualties as a result of these conflicts. Consequently, it has become even more difficult for the already besieged Afghan central government to establish any form of legitimacy with the Afghan people. At the same time, another record poppy harvest has brought huge amounts of money into Afghanistan's narco-economy - further enriching the corrupt government officials and armed opposition groups who feed off of it - reducing any incentives among these groups to find peaceful solutions.

Causes of Danger and Peril in Afghanistan
The current level of insecurity in Afghanistan is due to a complex combination of factors. The Taliban has resurfaced with great strength in the south and the east. As government corruption and extortion increase, many communities are losing all faith in their elected leaders to not only solve security and economic deterioration, but to cease causing it in the first place.

The huge surge in poppy production in 2007, and the huge economic incentives for key actors in the narco-economy show no signs of abating — opium production is currently 30 percent of Afghanistan's gross national product. As well, local government and international forces have little or no understanding of the tribal elements of the conflict in Afghanistan's south, and so are completely inadequate to the task of its management. And finally — but significantly — poverty and unemployment in rural areas continue to push young men with few licit livelihood options towards the dangerous promises held out by armed opposition groups.

How Mercy Corps is Helping
Despite the danger on the ground in Afghanistan, Mercy Corps is committed to providing desperately needed assistance and support to the Afghan people as they strive to rebuild their lives amidst such chaos. After decades of war and instability, Afghans are at risk of losing the ability to set the course of their own future. Vital infrastructure — such as irrigation and drainage canals, bridges, roads, and more — have been destroyed.

Mercy Corps has been working in Afghanistan since 1986. The majority of our work has been in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Many other international organizations have left this region, believing that the security situation has simply become too unstable for them to operate effectively.

But Mercy Corps believes that our longstanding relationships with these communities obligates us to stay on and continue to help as much as we can. These areas are wracked by violence, instability and chaos and people are desperate to find the means to restore some order to their lives. But they cannot do it alone.

For 21 years, Mercy Corps' key strategic goal in Afghanistan has been to ensure that Afghans at the household, community and institutional level can build strong, reliable and licit livelihoods in an environment in which government is accountable for its actions.

Mercy Corps supports Afghans with livelihood creation based on long-term natural resources - not by imposing economic solutions that won't be sustainable over time. We focus on agricultural and economic development to empower citizens, as well as initiatives that provide access to services and opportunities for marginalized Afghans. We also help Afghans by providing access to improved knowledge, skills and practices that will enable them to be securely anchored as productive and engaged economic and political actors. And finally, we create new economic opportunities through increased access to financial services.

For example, Mercy Corps works with Afghan communities to identify crucial infrastructure that needs to be replaced, and then we help design and rebuild. Damaged or destroyed irrigation canals are now flowing, revitalizing agricultural fields which have stood fallow for years. Bridges and roads once again connect small villages and communities with larger markets where they can sell their goods. Farmer groups are being organized so that small landholders can work together, pooling their resources and ensuring a greater economic voice in the selling of their collective products.

Mercy Corps also works with groups of Afghan women, training them in poultry keeping, basic hygiene and business skills so they can contribute to the financial well-being of their families. We also work with youth in Helmand province to provide improved education and training opportunities, along with leadership and critical thinking skills, leading to greater chances that they will more actively participate in the development of their families, communities and their own futures.

In recent years, Mercy Corps has helped more than 2.5 million Afghans with programs that offset decades of conflict, political instability and a multi-year drought. To date, we have completed more than 50 programs throughout Afghanistan's urban and rural areas. Our current programming work takes us to more than 100 communities in northern, southern and eastern Afghanistan, and we have helped rebuild more than 350 kilometers of roads and canals and helped drill 200 wells. Mercy Corps also has established tree nurseries and orchards, and hundreds of thousands of fruit tree saplings distributed to 12,500 rural Afghan families.

Mercy Corps' Agricultural Work in Afghanistan - the Challenges
Life for people in southern Afghanistan is almost impossibly difficult. Living hand-to-mouth, day-by-day, never being sure where one's next meal is coming from - this kind of situation allows nobody the "luxury" of setting something aside for a rainy day. And many rural Afghans are currently caught up in living on the very edge of subsistence, unable to save or store up resources for difficult times.

And although the very fabric of Afghan society is rapidly changing, agriculture will continue to remain the backbone of most Afghans' livelihoods, particularly farming and livestock cultivation. Despite challenging environmental and security conditions, and the deterioration of former market links and partnerships, Afghans continue to depend on their ability to grow fruits, nuts, vegetables and grains, as well as the products from their livestock, such as milk, cheese, skins and more.

Past agricultural aid programs have often sought to deal with emergencies through the direct distribution of food, no doubt saving countless lives. But in the long-term, these distributions work to destroy local markets - if wheat is being distributed for free, the wheat farmer has no market to sell his crops and thus no means to support his family. This means that the farmer will turn to other, more lucrative crops so that his family can survive - which often means the production of poppies.

Poppies - and the drug trade - are indeed a major challenge facing Afghan smallholders. Over the past several chaotic years, poppy production has replaced the growing of traditional crops across the country, contributing to an increase in insecurity and lawlessness. Many farmers, though reluctant to engage in this illegal trade, feel they have little option if they want to provide for their families, as poppy production provides a far greater income than any other crop currently grown in Afghanistan. As well, there is enormous pressure from many directions for farmers to convert their traditional crops to poppy fields, while demand from abroad for the products of poppies continues to grow.

While Mercy Corps does not participate in the eradication of poppy plants, we do feel strongly that we can play a significant role in helping Afghan farmers maximize their potential and profits for a wide range of licit crops and other livelihoods, giving them options for a sustainable and legal way of providing for their families. As legitimate legal frameworks are put into place and the Afghan government is more able to enforce its own laws - eventually cutting off the ability to profit from poppy production - Afghan farmers will be better able to weather the transition back to legal crop production, thanks to Mercy Corps' continued work to provide them with those options.

Mercy Corps' Agricultural Work in Afghanistan - the Solutions
Through our programs in agriculture and livestock health, Mercy Corps seeks to ensure that rural Afghans have steady and reliable means to feed their families, either directly through what they grow or breed, or indirectly through what they can buy from money earned.

With funding from the European Commission, Mercy Corps' agricultural work in Afghanistan centers around improving crop and livestock production, consumption, productivity, and sales, which lead to increased household food and livelihood stability. We help communities work together to identify their common and individual issues and then work together to solve those problems.

Our work with Afghan farmers themselves consists of providing education, training and improved access to high quality raw materials, such as seeds, fertilizers and pest control methods. We also help farmers harvest, package and market their crops to regional and international standards, so that they stand a better chance at getting maximum profits for their goods, and can reestablish links to vital markets inside Afghanistan, South Asia and ultimately, internationally.

Since 1993, and with support from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, Mercy Corps has worked with more than 100 independent seed growers to produce nearly one thousand tons of wheat, barley, rice, maize and mung beans, which are then cleaned, bagged and sold on the open market. Enough wheat seed is produced annually to benefit nearly 6,000 Afghan households, and the improved seed varieties normally double yields compared to local varieties. Revenue from seed sales will be used to establish a private seed operation and to increase farm supply and services to rural Afghan farmers over the coming year.

In addition, 157 Afghan community groups receive funding from Mercy Corps to grow vegetables, increase poultry production, and repair rural infrastructure such as irrigation canals to water crops, drainage canals to make swampy non-productive areas cultivatable, and improve roads so communities have more reliable access to markets to sell their goods.

Mercy Corps' Agro-Business and Agriculture Development Program
Mercy Corps' works with farmers and government officials to determine what the main problems facing Afghan smallholders actually are. We look at the entire "value chain" of key Afghan crops - such as pomegranates, grapes, apricots, almonds, and more - to understand where the system isn't working as it should.

All parties - farmers, traders, goods processors and government officials - have an opportunity to evaluate those aspects of Afghan's agricultural system that have broken down: quality of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, soil; how farmers plan their crop rotations; how common agricultural pests and weeds are handled; and how agricultural products are harvested, packaged and transported to markets. During this process, stakeholders get a chance to see which parts of the "chain" are broken - as well as a chance to work together to find ways to fix it, thus maximizing profits and benefits for Afghan farmers.

Mercy Corps also works to identify Afghan agricultural entrepreneurs and help them get started. Availability of essential services and supplies is still a mixed bag in Afghanistan, with many gaps existing in what is accessible to the average rural citizen. Local ideas and energy are both there, and helping acquaint budding Afghan entrepreneurs with updated market information, standard business training, quality of goods and - in some instances - access to previously unavailable credit, helps give them the concrete tools they need to start successful businesses in their own communities.

Mercy Corps plans to reach more than 37,000 Afghan farmers and businesspeople with ways to help them improve the production and marketing of their agricultural goods. All our agricultural interventions will ultimately help Afghan farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs not only feed their own families, but also contribute significantly to the development of their local markets, spurring growth in ever wider areas of the country.

Mercy Corps' Animal Health Support Programming
Along with agriculture, Afghans depend greatly upon their livestock, with many families counting wealth not in cash, but in the number of animals owned. In times of relative peace and stability and when the rains are good, Afghan livestock herders seek to replenish their herds and flocks.

In recent decades though, war, drought, disease, displacement, environmental degradation, and the lack of veterinary facilities around the country, have all contributed to decimating the livestock population. These animals supply Afghan families with milk, butter and cheese, while their skins or meat can be sold for cash in order to purchase other family necessities. When the animal population dips, families suffer.

As well, the average Afghan livestock herder has no access to veterinary services. And even when they do, there is typically little information available regarding the value of vaccinating animals or of other forms of preventative care. This is particularly ill-advised, because in addition to the large number of livestock lost through war and drought, many animals also perish from contracting easily preventable diseases.

With funding from the European Commission, Mercy Corps has established and upgraded small, private veterinary field units throughout the southern Afghanistan provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Dai Kundi and Uruzgan. For the past few years, we have been working with 22 of these units, training para-veterinary staff in the basics of modern veterinary care, upgrading unit labs, providing units with equipment, assisting in the purchase of quality vaccines and medicines, and in general, introducing veterinary industry standards which will bring improved levels of coverage and quality in animal health care.

And in direct response to a growing demand from livestock owners for artificial insemination services that will help restore herd sizes, Mercy Corps has also been helping to train these para-vets in modern insemination techniques, as well as connecting them with relevant tool and stock suppliers.

Mercy Corps is also working to make these veterinary field units more financially sustainable by helping developing their business skills so that the para-vets can cover their own expenses and expansion. By the end of 2008, all 22 Mercy Corps veterinary field units will be able to operate profitably on their own.

In many areas of Afghanistan women care for the family livestock. Yet due to cultural strictures, these women are unable to go out in public and make use of the male-dominated veterinary field units - and often they are even unaware of their existence. To overcome this, Mercy Corps has trained a small group of Female Livestock Workers who work directly with these village women, teaching them basic animal care, how to prevent diseases, how to recognize when veterinary care is needed, and how they or their families can access the veterinary field units.

Future Mercy Corps animal husbandry development work in Afghanistan will focus on forming a more cohesive partnership between our veterinary field units and the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, the University of Kandahar, and larger private Afghan veterinary clinics. This will enable our southern vet field units to more effectively establish disease early warning systems, respond to disease outbreaks, and implement more wide-ranging preventative livestock vaccination campaigns.

Alleviating Poverty, Strengthening Livelihoods and Protecting Natural Resources in Eastern and Northern Afghanistan
In recent years, Mercy Corps work in Afghanistan has expanded to include both the eastern region in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, along the border with Pakistan - a key crossing points for business and trade between the two countries - and the northern region of Takhar and Baghlan provinces, situated within the Kunduz River Basin.

We assist eastern Afghan farmers and communities to rebuild damaged or destroyed irrigation canals, flood-prone roads and bridges. This helps increase the area of land which can be devoted to agriculture, as well as improves access to sometimes distant market towns. Additionally, Mercy Corps provides training on the use of metal silos (which reduces the loss of valuable seed stocks from insects, moisture and consumption by household livestock) as well as in improved irrigation and farming techniques. We also support women in establishing and caring for large kitchen gardens, where the produce is used for both household consumption and for sale at local markets. And lastly, Mercy Corps has been helping eastern Afghan communities to establish and run private fruit tree orchards, the products of which then provide orchard owners with stable and higher levels of income.

In northern Afghanistan, years of war, displacement and uncertainty have destroyed not only agricultural production, infrastructure, animal husbandry, and access to markets, but also an already fragile eco-system. Forests have been cut down, hillsides denuded of vegetation, communal grazing lands overstressed and overgrazed, and many indigenous plants lost. As a result, many northern Afghan communities are faced with increased soil erosion as well as disputes over ever more limited natural resources.

Mercy Corps works with 5,000 families in the northern provinces of Takhar and Baghlan to help communities understand natural resources management as key to improving their own livelihoods. As part of a European Commission-funded program, we assist northern Afghan farmers to set up natural resource management committees and implement community-based plans to protect, improve and better manage forests, water, soil, grazing lands, and new and traditional crops. Denuded hillsides and valleys are fitted with water breaks and channels to minimize erosion, while new plants are introduced to reinvigorate and hold soil in place while also providing fodder for grazing animals. Community members also work together to establish property lines and set aside land for traditional communal grazing land, and irrigation canals are repaired to minimize water loss and bring unproductive land back into agricultural use.

As these individual activities begin to show real and tangible benefits, they are incorporated into larger and more comprehensive natural resource management plans, demonstrating that proper soil, water, pasture and rangeland management, livestock care, and forestry maintenance can lead to great benefits for both Afghan communities and individual families. These community conservation plans form important pieces of larger conservation plans for the entire Kunduz River Basin area. Ultimately, Mercy Corps continuing resource management activities in northern Afghanistan will benefit 322,000 local residents by contributing to the environmental regeneration of the entire Kunduz River Basin, as well as further river basin areas across the country.

Economic Development in Kabul - Ariana Financial Services Joint Stock Company
Mercy Corps originally began offering microfinance services in Afghanistan as part of our overall economic development strategy. Out of that programming came the realization that an independent financial services institution was needed. So in 2003, with an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ariana Financial Services Joint Stock Company was born.

Ariana's early operations focused exclusively on women in District 7 of Kabul, the area hardest hit by fighting during the war. The majority of people in District 7 were refugees from Pakistan and Iran, and included widows with marketable skills but without the financial resources to start their own businesses. Ariana's mission then - as now - was to provide its clients with high quality and fair priced loan products, including access to capital and financial management training, so that they could start or expand their businesses, increase their incomes, and in general improve their quality of life.

Ariana is now in the final stages of becoming a fully independent, nationally recognized, financially self-sufficient, and wholly Afghan-run financial services institution. Ariana offers solidarity group loans, individual loans, and agricultural loan products. In development are home loan financing and specialized loans that will address the needs of young, post-war Afghan entrepreneurs. Ariana's current clients run microenterprises in all types of industries - weaving, carpentry, tailoring, hairdressing, food processing, florists, kite production, knitting, leather working, animal husbandry, and more. Seventy-two percent of Ariana's clients are women, who represent one of the most vulnerable social groups in Afghanistan.

Ariana has already expanded operations into all 18 Kabul Districts and recently opened an office and started operations in Jalalabad, the largest major city in eastern Afghanistan. Ariana expects to expand into northern Afghanistan in 2008, and in partnership with Mercy Corps, future expansion is eventually planned for southern Afghanistan.

Since its inception, Ariana has supported nearly 34,000 clients with $8.4 million in loans, and currently has 10,000 active clients, with an outstanding portfolio of $2.1 million. Ariana also covers 80 percent of its operating expenses and expects to be 100 percent self-sufficient by the end of 2008.

Last updated: February 2008