The United Nations Development Programme has announced that, under the \u201cAfghanistan Women\u2019s Sustainable Business Support Fund,\u201d 1,500 women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan will receive financial and technical assistance, a move that is also expected to improve the livelihoods of thousands of others amid sweeping restrictions on women\u2019s work and economic access.<\/p>\n
According to the agency, the initiative has been launched to strengthen women\u2019s economic capacity, expand their access to sustainable financial resources, and create opportunities for them to take part in local and regional markets. Women included in the programme will, in addition to financial assistance, receive practical training in financial and digital literacy, expert economic management advice, support in preparing business plans, and access to business networking.<\/p>\n
Based on the UNDP\u2019s initial assessments, the project could indirectly improve the living standards and incomes of more than 14,000 people in different parts of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Stefan Torhsen Saleh, UNDP\u2019s representative in Afghanistan, said the main problem facing women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan is not a lack of motivation or weak production, but their limited access to credit sources, specialised training and business support networks.<\/p>\n
He also said the agency is seeking to raise an additional $10 million from international donors to expand the programme to another 10,000 women entrepreneurs. If the funding is secured, at least 70,000 more people will also indirectly benefit from livelihood support, he said.<\/p>\n
According to figures from international organisations cited in the report, fewer than 7% of women in Afghanistan have a formal bank account or use digital financial services and mobile wallets. This has left many women-led businesses dependent on personal savings, loans from relatives or the sale of their limited assets to secure capital.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, official statistics show that more than 10,000 women in Afghanistan hold formal licences for economic activity, a figure that has increased tenfold over the past five years. Estimates from the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment also indicate that around 120,000 more women are informally engaged in home-based work and small workshops.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Development Programme is one of the UN\u2019s main development and poverty-reduction agencies, and in Afghanistan part of its work focuses on supporting livelihoods and small businesses, especially among women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNDP will back 1,500 women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan with funding, training and business support to boost livelihoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-important-news","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}