Used goods markets boom

The number of used goods shops and markets is spiraling as the economic situation worsens and international aid slows down.

More and more people in the capital city are resorting to selling personal belongings including household goods and furniture to make ends meet.

The number of used goods shops and markets is spiraling as the economic situation worsens and international aid slows down.

More and more people in the capital city are resorting to selling personal belongings including household goods and furniture to make ends meet.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSMD) and the Central Census Office (CSO), for every 25 Afghans qualified to work, more than half have little work and 8 percent are absolutely jobless.

Wasel Noor Mohmand, the deputy MoLSAMD minister claims, “some 75 percent of the jobless are those who are busy in daily businesses like craft workers or shopkeepers”. Joblessness is a global problem, he adds, and cites ILO (International Labour Organisation) figures for unemployment (85 million) and poverty (200 million).

In Afghanistan, some 9 million out of the country’s roughly 36 million population are living well under the poverty line while some 6 million Afghans are just above it.

In the minister’s opinion, with the implementation of the promises made at the Tokyo conference (for Afghanistan in July 2012) there is hope that many of the youths would get jobs. He says, “As much as our developmental projects are implemented in mines’ extraction, trade and industry, agriculture, road construction and urban development, simultaneously jobless youths would get jobs.”

According to him, the reason why people are selling their personal goods is to “buy new items” and “less due to unemployment”. “Some people are thinking about new items as new technology comes into existence. So they sell their old items and buy instead new items. Poverty is not a factor,” he is emphatic.

Economic migration

Ozra Shamal, a civil society activist, has found instances where families have sold everything and left the country. “I have found the number of shops selling second-hand goods has increased even in small lanes,” she says. “People are frustrated and disappointed living without jobs and in the midst of violence and conflict, and opt to migrate. Only a week back, one of my relatives, Mahmood Jan, sold everything and left with his family towards Iran.” Mahmood Jan who had lived in Kabul in a rented house, had sent his two sons to Iran and the Gulf countries. When he found it difficult to survive because of lack of work, he sold all his household items and migrated with his family.

Shrinking funds

There are fewer jobs also with international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who, with their budgets shrinking, have scaled down operations. Second-hand goods markets are overflowing with office furniture, computers and other goods that were once the property of NGOs.

Abdul Hasan Mohseni, an experienced programme officer with an NGO says, “The fall in (number of) NGOs has a direct effect on individuals that are linked to them and not on other people because NGOs have not accomplished fundamental work in Afghanistan that would affect the economy of Afghanistan.”

According to Mohseni, Afghan NGOs have been affected because of “lack of financial stability (they are dependent on donors) – they face a fall when there are budget cuts – and lack of professionalism and low capacity of human power as some NGOs cannot compete with international NGOs since the winners of vital projects are always those who have better capacity and professionalism.”

Sayed Hashem Basirat, the head of the NGOs’ department in the Ministry of Economy, says there are 1,950 NGOs registered with the ministry, including 1,675 local NGOs. He says some 390 NGOs including 8 internationals were told to shut down in 2014 on the orders of the ministry’s High Commission of Assessment, Development and Dismissal. Basirat says another 173 NGOs are likely to face the axe this year for failing to submit reports for two continuous years to the Ministry of Economy. Faced with a cash crunch and growing insecurity, they are not able to work, and default on the mandatory progress report submission..

The severity of war between armed groups and with the government has increased insecurity even in Kabul, which has seen a wave of bombs and suicide attacks in the past few weeks.

No buyers

In second-hand shops, the most luxurious items, sold by well-to-do families are on sale. Jawed, a used goods dealer in Karte Seh, Kabul says, “We deal in second-hand items like mattresses, TVs, dishes. However, there is no sale. But we keep buying hoping the situation will get better.”

Jawed says the wealthy sell their goods and leave the country; the poor sell to survive from day to day. “The government of national unity does not know either the situation or the problems of people,” he adds.

Hamed is a used clothes dealer in the capital’s Dasht Barchi area. “In the past, second-hand clothes from abroad flooded the markets. Now Afghans themselves are selling their own things,” he says. He too says there are few buyers.

MoLSAMD is trying to find jobs for people in the government and private sector. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for labour recruitment have been signed with Gulf countries.