Urban livelihoods in Afghanistan

The cities of Afghanistan are growing fast.
The pace of this growth exceeds the planning
and management capabilities of the already
overwhelmed central government and of
under-resourced municipalities, making them
unable and, at times, unwilling to effectively
work on reducing levels of urban poverty and
vulnerability. As a result, poor urban
households are excluded from the most basic
services and are forced to live day-to-day on
meagre, unreliable income flows in often
health-threatening environments.
Against this background of unprecedented
and largely unplanned urbanisation in the
country, the Afghanistan Research and
Evaluation Unit (AREU) carried out research
in five Afghan cities to explore the ground
realities of urban poverty and vulnerability.
By understanding the diverse livelihood
strategies poor and vulnerable households
pursue, and how and why such strategies
change over time, this AREU study hopes to
inform policy formulation that builds on the
capabilities, needs and priorities of
marginalised urban populations.