Two men at an agricultural depot in Herat, Afghanistan. Photo by: USAID Afghanistan Accelerating Sustainable Agriculture Project
by Hamayun Khan 21 July 2021
While the ongoing Afghan controversial peace process is in full swing, the United States eventually vacated its main base in Bagram, Kabul, on June 2. Despite the withdrawal of the US troops that leaves no religious-based legitimacy for the Taliban to fight its own Afghans. The Taliban’s offensives on public assets are continuously mounting. This has resulted in the uncertain political scenario and public skepticism over the protection of twenty years of achievements, that remain all-time major concerns leaving Afghans in dismay. The country’s ailing institutional framework on the opposite is also not capable to be counted on to withstand the economic imminent ramifications predicted to happen in case of any political disturbance. Given this critical juncture, Afghanistan needs a lasting peace more than any other time since 2001 – as the security situation comparatively gets worse.
For Afghans, peace has no substitute, meanwhile a steady, if not stable, economy is equally important to help ensure and uphold stability in the country. For economic stability, conventionalizing entrepreneurship is a timely choice that will not only act as a potential stimulant to help push the Afghan economy but peace too could be achieved to a great extent.
After instability, with a 13 percent of unemployment rate in 2021, unemployment stands out as the second biggest challenge for Afghans. Among several other issues, unemployment also engenders Job insecurity which remains another key challenge for Afghans. Job insecurity confines the job market in Afghanistan merely to the government sector – making it difficult for the candidates with quite less or no social reach and political influence to get a government job. Not only that, but unemployment also ultimately contributes to the recruitment of youngsters into insurgent groups and to indulge in other illegitimate activities that spoil peace and security in the country. In despair, many rejected candidates tend to retaliate in revenge, which the insurgent groups leverage to encourage these distressed youngsters to join the insurgent groups. As a result, these sidelined youngsters, after getting indoctrinated, start fighting the government irrespective of targeting specifically the concerned body wherein they were rejected from the job. It is therefore important for the government to focus more on the sidelined communities and those living in the conflict zones in having them find access to job opportunities. For this to happen, the government needs to create space for entrepreneurs and starters – which will be a timely alternative to expand the job market and to avert the above-stated issues. As entrepreneurship is meant for solving big problems and bring about social change.
Allowing the private sector to step into the Afghan economy is also beneficial for reducing corruption, as corruption has appeared to be a perilous hurdle in the way to achieving peace. The importance of the private sector in mitigating corruption and ensuring stability can be measured by the volume of non-profit organizations engaged in Afghanistan – both regional and international. Since private companies are less vulnerable to and more antipathetic to corruption than non-profit organizations. This is primarily due to the nature and objective of private firms making them more profit-oriented than focusing on developmental projects. However, if the private sector flourishes, it will not only support the job market to expand but will also help reduce corruption to some extent. On the other hand, the reason for non-profit organizations being more prone to corruption is that the way these organizations are supervised, generally in a more conventional environment. For several reasons, corruption exists at the operational level of these organizations.
The first reason remains the incapacity of the local staff – particularly those with quite less relevant experience. These people are most hired due to their reach to the political figures, and not on merit-based selection. This, along with several other complications, leads to inequality in the hiring process that results in the backlash of the rejected candidates in an account of being unequally treated – compelling them to retaliate violently. Second, non-profit organizations are financed and indirectly supervised through external channels. Many of those channels are not quite familiar with the Afghan way of working – especially in the remote areas where there is a limited reach due to insecurity. Another reason could be the decentralized form of the donor-funded programs that leads to the lack of direct supervision of the local staff by the donor. Such a lengthy hierarchy also expands the flow of communication between the administrative level based outside Afghanistan and the local managerial and operational level inside.
Again, the policymakers are required to pay attention to the private sector in Afghanistan to grow. As well as to put efforts into practice into mainstreaming entrepreneurship in the country. Materializing the concept of entrepreneurship for economic and political stability centers on two key recommendations that draw the policymakers’ attention. First, expansion of the job market from the government to the private sector by way of privatization. This can be best exemplified by the Syrian case of conflicts in recent years and how entrepreneurship played a significant role in solving big issues such as unemployment and instability. The severe political disturbance in Syria affected the country’s institutions woefully and ensued poor livelihood, unemployment, and political instability, etc. However, after all, this happened, the country experienced a sprint in reviving its war-hit institutions by creating room for entrepreneurship and the private sector to evolve. Finally, in 2017 over 150 start-ups were created in Syria. Therefore, war-hit communities should be financially encouraged to have their start-ups for economic revival and ensuring peace. Second, making contracts with local firms and investors while allotting them outright control of the donor-funded programs. Because, no matter what, investors and entrepreneurs care more about their profit – which also reduces the chance of corruption. Eventually, professionalism and merit-based selection become the priority – leading to stability by way of prioritizing the deserving and sidelined candidates from the war-affected zones.
To achieve peace, among other political means, entrepreneurship is a strategic alternative. This is more feasible with the flow of foreign aid– mainly to help revive the nascent and foreign-aid reliant Afghan economy. The flow of foreign aid needs to continue unless the country becomes self-dependent. However, until then foreign aid could be used for financing entrepreneurial activities in Afghanistan, specifically to help reduce the rate of unemployment for ensuring stability. Besides, the government should privatize the economic system – in part, if not in whole, to create room for local entrepreneurs to invest. This will keep the youngsters engaged and prevent them from indulging in illegitimate activities especially those that can harm the national security and stability of Afghanistan.
About the author:
Hamayun Khan is an independent researcher and currently works as a Finance Specialist at the Siena School, Maryland, USA.