Living conditions of returnees

50 Figure 4.16: Displacement and return of returned displaced households, by year of movement, and by refugee-IDP status in thousands

4.5.2 Living conditions of returnees

A relevant question is how the living situation of returnees relate to that of people that did not experience displacement and subsequent return. Figures 4.17 a and b present selected development indicators at, respectively, individual and household level. With regard to education-related indicators, the situation of returnees is better than that of non-returnees, whereas regarding labour-force indicators the performance is mixed Figure 4.17a. Returnees of both sexes and of all age groups are on average better able to read and write, resulting in a substantial overall difference in the literacy rate of 47 against 34 percent in favour of returnees. Regarding education attendance rates, that of primary attendance is more or less similar for both populations. The rates of secondary and tertiary attendance are significantly better among the returnees, although the difference is almost exclusively caused by education attendance of boys. The labour force participation is higher among returnees than among non-returnees 61 against 55 percent, especially caused by higher female participation rates. However, these economically active returnee women are to a somewhat higher degree not gainfully employed either being unemployed or underemployed: 56 percent against 50 percent for the non-returnee female labour force. For the – much larger – male labour force, there is no difference, which results in an overall non-gainfully employment rate that is similar for returnees and non-returnees 40 and 39 percent, respectively. The one individual-level indicator that is clearly not in favour of returnees is that of child labour: just over one quarter of non-returnee children are in child labour, compared to almost one third of returnee children. 10 20 30 40 50 60 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 T h o u san d s Year IDP displacement Refugee displacement IDP return Refugee return 51 Figure 4.17: Selected a individual-level and b household-level indicators, by returnee status in percentages a. Individual-level indicators b. Household-level indicators Most household-level variables indicate better living conditions for returnee households than for other households Figure 4.17b. Household facilities like improved sanitation and drinking water, as well as the higher dwelling quality expressed in terms of a floor sealed with tiles or concrete are significantly more available to returnee households than to non-returnee households. Importantly, the poverty rate that covers many aspects of material wellbeing shows a better situation for people in returnee households than for those in non-returnee households. 26 39 55 8 37 55 34 32 40 61 12 44 53 47 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Child labour rate Not gainfully employment rate Labour force participation rate Labour indicators Net tertiary attendance rate Net secondary attendance rate Net primary attendance rate Literacy rate Education indicators Percentage Returnees Other population 15 31 13 62 36 15 40 27 73 62 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Economic situation improved Poverty rate Concrete or tiled floor Access to improved drinking water Access to improved sanitation Percentage Returnee households Other households 52 It is likely that the type of residence is an important explanatory factor for the generally better situation of returnees, as they live almost twice as often in urban areas than non-returnees. 53 5 LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES Summary . The chapter on labour market outcomes tabulates and analyses labour market indicators on the basis of the new national definitions first used in the report on NRVA 2011-12 CSO 2014. The analysis suggests that Afghanistan’s labour market is under considerable stress. Slightly more than two thirds of the labour force of 8.5 million is less than 40 years of age. Two fifths remains not gainfully employed underemployed or unemployed and 79 percent is in vulnerable employment. Meanwhile, a total of 6.8 million Afghans in the working age, mainly women 5.3 million, do not participate at all. Agriculture accounts for two fifths of all employment, manufacturing for less than a tenth, while the recently more dynamic trade, transport, finance, real estate and insurance sectors account for a little less than a fifth. An overwhelming 61 percent of all employed have not been to school and only ten percent have attended school up to primary level. Consequently, nine tenths of the employed workforce is in unskilled occupations. Gender differences in labour market outcomes are stark: while participation rates are low 29 percent, unpaid family work and agriculture account for at least two thirds of female employment, and women’s mean and median monthly earnings are much lower than men’s in equivalent occupations. Comparison of labour indicators between 2007-08 and 2012-13 suggests that there has been a large shift of the labour force from working to unemployed, particularly in the urban sector. A substantial slowdown in growth constrained by persistent uncertainty surrounding political and security transition, increased levels of conflict and a downturn in aid, are likely to be underlying factors. Four percent of Afghans of working age have migrated to their current place of residence for employment, either from within Afghanistan 87 percent or from abroad. 13 percent. While a disproportionally large share of internal labour migrants consists of the nomadic Kuchi, two thirds of the sedentary non-Kuchi migrants have moved to Kabul province. Almost two-thirds of all sedentary internal migrants move from rural to urban areas, with only a very small proportion of 4 percent moving in the opposite direction. Internal labour migrants tend to be male 77 percent and are distributed fairly evenly among different age cohorts, while labour emigrants are almost all male, and more than two thirds of them are in their twenties. Of the traditional labour migration destinations – Pakistan and Iran – the former has lost much of its appeal to migrants. On the other hand, the Gulf states have emerged as important labour migration destinations. Labour migrants appear to be better educated, and males at least perform much better in the labour market than the general population: a greater proportion of internal male migrants were gainfully employed, found better jobs, and earned more, although male immigrants were less successful in finding gainful employment and had higher rates of unemployment. In contrast, women’s labour market prospects appear to have worsened with migration: 74 percent of internal migrants and even 83 percent of immigrants remained inactive after migration. Even the prospects of male Kuchi labour migrants are bleak. They earn only 45 percent of the earnings of sedentary labour migrants, likely because of very low levels of human capital. High rates of child labour in Afghanistan also reflect the extent to which its labour market is stressed. Slightly more than a quarter of all children between the ages of 5 and 17, that is 2.7 million children or 27 percent , are engaged in child labour according to ILO’s definitions. This is one of the highest rates of child labour in the world. Of this number of children, 46 percent are between 5 and 11 years of age. In every age cohort, more boys are engaged in child labour than are girls, and the gender difference increases with age. Of course, if household work is also taken into account, as in the UNICEF definition, the child labour rate among girls rises from 20 percent to 24 percent and for boys and girls together, it rises to 29 percent. While a higher proportion of boys than girls are exposed to hazardous conditions, at least half of all child labourers, more boys 61 percent than girls 53 percent, are exposed to dust, gas and fumes. A similar proportion of labouring boys, but a marginally higher proportion of girls is exposed to extreme cold, heat or humidity. Meanwhile, 43 percent of boys and 38 percent of girls who have undertaken child labour have been injured or have fallen ill as a result of the work he or she had been doing. While 40 percent of boys 54 who did not attend school cited the need to work as the main reason, 37 percent of girls who did not attend school did not do so because they were not allowed to. While child labour is strongly associated with household poverty, engaging in child labour perpetuates the cycle of poverty, as working children are unable to acquire necessary skills and remain healthy, which are in turn likely to retard their capacity to earn enough to get out of poverty themselves in the future. The analysis suggests that both demand and supply side measures are necessary to promote the growth of decent employment opportunities in Afghanistan. The demand for labour needs to be increased through the aggressive promotion of entrepreneurship and small businesses catering to export markets as well as to domestic and local markets. The agricultural sector needs to be made more productive by providing better inputs, such as improved seeds and fertilizer; storage facilities; creating functioning local markets; and rebuilding transport and communication networks to access more distant markets. At the same time, workers must also be equipped with demand-driven skills so that they can create productive self- employment opportunities, or else take up the job opportunities created by a growing business class.

5.1 Introduction