There has been a sharp rise in joblessness ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops from combat duties in roughly a year from now. An investigation.
The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs & Disabled (MoLSAMD) estimates a third of Afghanistan’s 9 million workers are unemployed.
The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs & Disabled (MoLSAMD) estimates a third of Afghanistan’s 9 million workers are unemployed. The Central Statistic Organisation(CSO) believes 25 percent of the country’s skilled workforce has no hope of finding a job if the situation does not improve.
Killid’s own guesstimate from a random survey of the job market shows that the ranks of applicants for jobs have swelled by 50 percent even as the ability of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private and government sectors to absorb people has dramatically decreased. This is the result of shrinking foreign aid, the winding up of PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) and the government’s failure to hammer out an effective job creation strategy.
Najibullah Tajali, assistant director of ACBAR, an employment website (www.acbar.org), says with less money coming into the country NGOs are cost-cutting by reducing staff. However, the site continues to post as many job announcements as before, he insists. ACBARwas established in 1988 to coordinate aid for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The website was created in end-2001.
Ahmad Farid Niazai who was working with a foreign organisation till three months ago and is now out of work says he regularly searches the ACBAR website but has not found anything suitable. “ACBAR is a good site,” he says. “I found my earlier job through the site but now there are fewer advertisements for jobs. Organisations seem to announce only those posts that they cannot do without.”
Farid believes all organisations that were dependent on foreign aid have cut back on human resources. “Many of my friends have lost jobs. Whoever I call says their organisation has reduced staff. The organisation I was working with terminated the employment of 30 people. If you were to multiply 30 with the roughly 2,000 NGOs (in Afghanistan) you can guess how many more people are jobless!”
At www.jobs.afwhich says it advertises jobs with the UN, government, international development and aid agencies, multinationals and private sector, fewer jobs are being advertised. Shekib Muhsenyar who is the webmaster, says previously there were between 500 and 600 announcements on their site every month. Now the number has shrunk to “200 announcements”.
He says the number of registered job seekers has doubled in the last nine months. “They are all skilled, and have completed their studies. But they are unemployed because there are no jobs,” he says.
There is definitely a crunch in foreign funds, and organisations are announcing fewer projects, Muhsenyar believes.
Rise in unemployment
Hasibullah Mowahed, the acting director of CSO, says anyone unable to find work or working only for one or two days a week is considered unemployed by the government. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), however, has a different definition of a person with a job. “If the person works even one hour a week the person s/he is considered employed.”
He bemoans the fact that while the population of job seekers has been steadily growing the government has failed to create jobs for the new graduates from Afghanistan’s universities and other educational institutions.
New jobless
An estimated 30,000 mostly young men are likely to have lost jobs with the disbanding of PRTs, introduced by the US in 2002 to support public diplomacy and reconstruction efforts in less secure provinces.
Until a year ago there were PRTs in 27 provinces under the charge of the various ISAF partners.The Ministry of Economy has announced PRTs (provincial reconstruction teams) have shut down in all but three provinces 0 Ghazni, Uruzgan and Farah.(Killid 592, ‘Out of work’)
Najibullah Amin, the spokesperson for the ministry, confirmed the vast majority of those whose jobs with PRTs were terminated are still jobless. Gul Rasoul, a resident of Khost province, who has lost his job says, “Many young people like me are jobless. We were working in PRT.”
PRT projects -the Ministry of Economy estimates 900 million dollars were spent by PRTs in Afghanistan – were handed over to provincial governments like in Paktika. But they are cash strapped and work is at a standstill. Mokhles Afghan, the spokesperson for Paktika governor,told Killid: “We lack the budget.”
Ministry of Economy spokesperson Amin said the Council of Ministers has approved a new strategy to tackle unemployment. Henceforth jobs in mining and manufacturing will only be for Afghans.
Jobs in the government are under the purview of the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission.
Appointments, however, are influenced by the candidates connections in the government, and not on the basis of selection according to rules and regulations. Zabiullah Sawezwho heads the secretariat in the commission, says there are mechanisms in place but “conditions are not ready for acceptance of the law”.
In 2009 the government signed an agreement with Qatar to send Afghan labour to the Gulf state. Nothing has happened. Khair Mohammad Nero, director general of human resources, says,”We are ready but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not got a clear response (from Qatar)”.
