Unemployment and underemployment is a pervasive problem across Afghanistan, fueled by decades of conflict. While urban centers around the country have more employment and business opportunities, marginalized segments of population face additional challenges finding employment. USAID has projects specifically focused on creating job and business opportunities for marginalized populations, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, women, and youth.

In one project, we are training Afghans how to best care for and manage livestock and poultry, including encouraging beneficiaries to work together collectively to access veterinary services and markets.

Ms. Zahra, 50-year-old woman living in a Kabul IDP settlement with her husband and six children is one of the women benefitting from the job creation project. Last year, she was enrolled in a USAID job creation program. In the first month of the program she received practical and theoretical training on the most effective methods for housing poultry. She stated, “We did not have good economic conditions and there were no opportunities to work or generate money for my children, but now I am very happy that I’m earning money from selling eggs every day.”