Impact of Civil Society Organizations on Economic Empowerment of Afghan Women

Abstract

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Afghanistan have long been a critical actor in playing its role in social, economic and political empowerment of women. Accordingly, this research attempts to shed light on the preliminary work done by CSOs on women economic empowerment in Afghanistan. The study provides a brief history of women’s situation in Afghanistan through different timelines and reviews the current state of CSOs working with women and girls in Afghanistan. For the purpose of this study, interviews are conducted with fifty individuals from thirty CSOs that work with Afghan women; which range from empowering women in a broad level to raising female literacy rate; from providing a safe working environment for women to supporting women in their decision making. A qualitative approach is selected as the research method for this study, through the use of questionnaire from two different groups. First group includes thirty individual from higher management officials of the particular CSOs, while the second target group is the female staff member of the organizations, who are the direct beneficiary of the specific CSOs. The research examines the role of women led CSOs on Afghan women economic empowerment; their main objectives and to what level they have been successful in achieving their goals. By analyzing the effectiveness of CSOs on women economic empowerment this paper, also provides recommendations for Afghan CSOs to maximize their ability to change the established norms and economically empower women in Afghanistan. The research findings indicate that CSOs that work on women issues in Afghanistan has contributed to women’s economic empowerment. However, officials from management level of the CSOs are more satisfy with the achievements compare to women beneficiaries.