Program Details: 
Alleviating Poverty and Strengthening Livelihoods

Afghanistan is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict, political instability, unrelenting drought and an economy in shambles. Mercy Corps has been active in Afghanistan since 1986, and in recent years, we have helped more than 2.5 million Afghans through a wide-range of community–based agriculture and economic development programs. We are currently working in more than 100 communities in northern, southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Mercy Corps’ Strategy in Afghanistan
With 85 percent of the population relying on agriculture and natural resource-based livelihoods, Mercy Corps’ primary goal is to enable Afghans to improve their quality of life by strengthening, sustainable, licit livelihoods. Mercy Corps’ programs are aimed at improving agricultural production and market linkages, community and agriculture infrastructure, animal and livestock health, natural resource management, and access to financial services, with an emphasis on linking government, communities and the private sector.

Achieving Sustainable, Licit, Agricultural Livelihoods
Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives – North, East and West (IDEA – NEW), is a five-year, multi-component program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), whose aim is to promote sustainable, licit livelihoods and commercially viable sources of income for Afghans living in rural communities in 16 provinces in north, west and east Afghanistan. Launched in March 2009, the program brings together a consortium of organizations lead by the Development Alternatives Inc (DAI), in alliance with Mercy Corps and ACDI/VOCA and will work in close collaboration with local and community leaders, IRoA ministries and agencies, and the private sector. Mercy Corps Afghanistan is implementing the program in the provinces of Takhar, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Baghlan. Program interventions are designed to improve agricultural production, including horticulture and crop cultivation, as well as livestock and animal health; community-based and agriculture-related infrastructure; increase access to financial services; provide value chain inputs and create linkages to markets for agricultural products; and provide support to non-agriculture, rural enterprises.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mercy Corps is implementing the Afghanistan Agri-Business and Agriculture Development (AABAD) program in six provinces in northeastern and southern Afghanistan. The multi-component, three-year program is building the capacity of farmers, agriculture producer associations, entrepreneurs and the Ministry of Agriculture to improve and increase the production and sale of high-value fruits and nuts; improve agriculture-related and community infrastructure; and strengthen the network of Veterinary Field Units (VFUs) to provide improved veterinary and livestock services to farm communities.

Helmand Agricultural Solutions for Improved Livelihoods (HASIL), is a DFID funded program designed to increase the economic opportunities and livelihood options of the rural poor in communities in Helmand province, including those making a living from growing poppy. HASIL is providing extensive, improved irrigation infrastructure; saplings and cuttings to farmers, along with information, training and technical assistance to grow high value fruits, nuts and vegetables; poultry and livestock care and feeding programs; and is building the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture extension services and staff, which provide information and services to farmers.

The GDA, the Global Development Alliance for Strengthening Market Chains for Afghan Grapes and Pomegranates aims to increase capacity, jobs, sales and production along the grape and pomegranate value chains. The program provides information, training and technical assistance to farmers and producer associations to achieve international product quality standards, as well as facilitating local, regional and international market linkages for grapes and pomegranates.

The EC-funded Catchment Development Program aims at strengthening livelihoods of 5,000 families living in 25 communities in the catchment area of the Kunduz River basin in Takhar and Baghlan provinces. CDP supports communities to implement projects in forest and tree resource management, livestock care, pasture and rangeland management, soil conservation, and water management. The program also promotes the active involvement of the extension services and staff of the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that activities are integrated into and support the Kunduz River basin watershed system.

Water as an element of livelihoods and environmental sustainability is an additional focus of Mercy Corps’ work in northeastern Afghanistan, where we are implementing the Kunduz Integrated Water Initiative (KIWI). The EC-funded program addresses the need for better water distribution infrastructure and improved water management institutions in the provinces Kunduz and Baghlan. KIWI is targeting seven canals or water distribution systems for infrastructure improvements and improved water management practices which will allow farm communities in these areas equal access to water resources and thereby increase crop yields.

Since 1993, Mercy Corps has worked with more than 100 contract seed growers in Southern Afghanistan to produce improved varieties of wheat seed so that now we produce 1,000 metric tons annually of quality declared seed (QDS), certified to produce high quality crops. Through two centers in Kandahar and Helmand, the seed is cleaned, tested, bagged and sold on the open market. Enough wheat seed is produced annually for 6,000 households, and the improved seeds have doubled the average yield. The provision of wheat seed has contributed to improving food security and licit sources of livelihoods in Helmand and Kandahar. In 2009, with rrevenue from seed sales, the QDS program registered as a private enterprise and will continue to provide quality seed to farmers in southern Afghanistan.

Mercy Corps has identified 14 agricultural high schools throughout Afghanistan that are in need of both infrastructure repairs and a modern curriculum to help young farmers learn everything from seed propagation and animal husbandry to agribusiness skills. With funding from DFID, Mercy Corps is constructing an Agriculture high school in Helmand Province and in partnership with Purdue University, the Czech private, non-profit relief and development organization, People in Need (PIN), and the Ministries of Agriculture and Education, we are developing a new 10th and 11th grade curricula for ag high schools, along with textbooks and teacher training materials. Teachers receive training in how to use the curricula, as well as in modern agricultural teaching methods.

Food Security and Support for Refugee and Returnee Populations
Mercy Corps, along with program partner, Save the Children (US), is implementing a cash for work program targeting poor and vulnerable households in the northern Afghanistan cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, Pul-e-Khumri, and Bamyan. The eight-month, USAID-funded, Food Insecurity Response for Urban Populations (FIRUP) program started in March 2009 and is designed to increase income and food access for those urban and peri-urban residents who have been especially hard-hit by the global food crisis and rising cost of living in Afghanistan during the last two years. In cooperation with provincial and district officials and community leaders, Mercy Corps and Save the Children will employ residents to work on labor-intensive projects that improve community assets while enabling them to earn money to purchase food and other essentials.

Agriculture Productivity Enhancement for Afghan Returnees (A-PEAR) is funded by the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (BPRM) and aims to improve food security of rural populations in Eastern Afghanistan. The one-year program provides enhanced economic opportunities to returnees, especially landless youth, and host communities in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces. The program is engaged in high impact community development infrastructure projects that support and enhance agriculture productivity; provides inputs to agro-enterprises that contribute and support production, consumption and income generation; and provides capacity building to communities to enable them to better respond to their local needs.

Ariana Financial Services Group
In 2003, Mercy Corps established Ariana Financial Services, one of the first microfinance institutions in Afghanistan, providing high quality, fair-priced savings and loan products to clients to help increase their incomes, expand their businesses and improve their quality of life. Since that time, Ariana has supported more than 45,000 clients with $11.3 million in loans. Ariana currently has 11,001 active clients, 72% of whom are women who have started or expanded micro-enterprises in all areas of Afghan life – including weaving, carpentry, tailoring, hairdressing, knitting, leather working and animal husbandry. In 2008 Ariana registered as a separate micro-lending institution under IRoA law.