The Government of Afghanistan and its international partners have approved the subject of women economic empowerment to take the form of a National Priority Program (NPP), and is now becoming one of the 12 NPPs of Afghanistan for the next two decades. This NPP will be an inter-ministerial program with an associated monitoring and evaluation system.

Duran Research & Analysis is providing core technical support to the Government of Afghanistan in developing this strategy, which includes nation-wide consultations with public, private, civil society and international stakeholders.

The National Priority Program on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE NPP) pursues the objective of building women’s capacity to strengthen the economy of their own households, where women play a central role. This objective will contribute to the goal of Building Economically Resilient Families Across Afghanistan, which will be impossible without women’s active role in local economic development.

Duran is of the belief that attempts aimed at altering women’s status has to acknowledge the complexity of inter-related social, economic and political factors. In order to make an impact on the system at large, the interventions should take place at all layers simultaneously. As a result, Duran’s strategic planning methodology, articulating itself in the form of a holistic and inclusive approach, emphasizes on the need to design interventions that simultaneously work on women’s access to information about their rights as well as take steps towards ensuring women’s access to some form of income, or ownership of capital assets or property as the basis for women’s economic empowerment.

Partners: Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MOLSAMD), Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) and GIZ (international partner)