Sustaining the Working Poor in the Kabul Informal Settlements

Internal displacement and the development of informal settlements in Afghanistan are key humanitarian and development challenges for policy makers to address, and growing concerns in an uncertain context of transition. This third research study by Samuel Hall on the living conditions and protection concerns of internally displaced persons (IDPs) contributes to the knowledge base required to mainstream protection in humanitarian and development priorities and interventions.

There are over 50 informal settlements in Kabul (KIS) where mainly returnee and IDP households live in extreme poverty and vulnerability. The working population in KIS can be identified as low-skilled and economically disadvantaged workers. In such a context, skills upgrading can be an effective policy intervention to strengthen the local integration of the working poor and can lead to poverty reduction in KIS. Thus, vocational training may lead to increased productivity and higher income next to the working poor in KIS, if it is designed based on the realities of the labour market in Kabul.

In this study, a labour market survey was conducted in Kabul based on a sample of 300 enterprises – mostly informal MSEs (micro & small enterprises) – to assess the labour demand in Kabul. Another survey of 275 households in 10 KIS (Kabul informal settlements) studied the labour supply