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Female-headed households are more likely to experience moderate to severe hunger than male-headed households 33 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Table 8.10: Percentage of households, by Household Hunger Scale and HHS components, by residence and region in percentages
Residence and region Household Hunger Scale
At least once in past month and sex of household
Moderate Severe
no food of any went to bed
went a whole head
or severe hunger
kind to eat feeling hungry
day and night hunger
in household without any
food to eat National
12.2 1.4
29.9 12.0
6.5 Residence
Urban 7.4
0.8 27.6
6.1 3.0
Rural 13.6
1.6 30.5
13.8 7.5
Kuchi 15.4
1.9 32.6
14.9 9.0
Region Central
5.7 0.8
26.9 4.4
2.4 Central Highland
11.8 3.6
15.6 13.3
11.2 Eastern
12.5 1.0
25.2 12.8
7.2 North
6.5 0.3
32.0 8.1
2.9 North-east
18.2 1.7
31.4 22.4
11.5 South-east
5.6 0.3
31.0 5.1
1.5 South-west
14.5 0.7
19.7 14.4
11.3 West
26.2 2.7
54.0 19.5
7.0 Sex of household head
Male 12.0
1.4 29.6
11.9 6.4
Female 32.6
4.8 53.8
25.9 14.8
8.7 Coping with shocks
8.7.1
General coping
When coping with household shocks in the last year prior to the survey, many households use short- term viable strategies including taking loans 44 percent of households, decreasing food expenditure
44 percent and receiving help from others in the community 10 percent
Table 8.11
. Stress coping strategies are applied by between 10 to 14 percent of households including purchase food on traders’
credit 14 percent and reduced amount or skipped meals 8 percent. However, it should be emphasised that some unviable distressed coping strategies
– which negatively impact food security in the future
– are also adopted by households, such as selling house, land or female reproductive livestock 6 percent, increasing child labour 4 percent, pulling children from
school 1 percent, selling child brides 0.6 percent and begging 0.4 percent. Across various viable livelihood coping strategies, many more rural households adopt coping strategies than their urban and
Kuchi counterparts. More rural households also adopt unviable strategies such as selling house, land or reproductive livestock, pulling children out of school and increasing child labour.
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Table 8.11: Household, by residence, and by use of selected coping strategies in percentages
Coping strategy National
Urban Rural
Kuchi Did not need to do anything to compensate
26.4 7.8
17.1 1.5
Reduced quality of diet 28.9
4.4 22.7
1.8 Reduced amount of food or skipped meals
8.0 1.5
6.0 0.5
Decreased expenditures 43.7
8.8 32.5
2.4 Purchased food on credit from traders
14.1 1.5
11.7 0.9
Took loans 44.4
10.4 31.8
2.2 Received help from others in the community
10.4 1.6
8.3 0.5
Sold assets 1.9
0.4 1.4
0.1 Rented out or mortgaged land
0.4 0.0
0.4 0.0
Sold house, land or female reproductive livestock 6.3
0.2 4.9
1.2 Worked on relief programmes
0.6 0.1
0.5 0.0
Joined military 2.2
0.2 1.9
0.0 Dropped children from school
0.9 0.1
0.7 0.1
Increased child labour 3.9
0.4 3.2
0.3 Sold child brides
0.6 0.1
0.5 0.0
Begging 0.4
0.1 0.3
0.0
8.7.2. Coping Strategy Index CSI As explained in detail in section 8.1, the Coping Strategies Index CSI combines the use of the five
food-based coping strategies into a single index. Nationally, the CSI average score is calculated at 2.75. It is higher in rural 2.96 than in urban 2.72 and is zero among Kuchi. The West and South-
West regions have the highest CSI scores 4.2 and 4.0, respectively
Table 8.12
. Households with a high level of coping are those having a CSI of 10 or above. These households
employed coping strategies relatively more often, or the strategies they employed were relatively more severe, or both. Nationally, 11 percent of households have a high level of coping, and being equally
among urban and rural households. Households situated in the west and north-east regions are more likely to have a high level of coping 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Female-headed households are twice as likely to adopt high coping as male-headed households 22 percent to 11 percent, respectively.
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Table 8.12: Households, by level of Coping Strategy Index, and by residence and region and sex of the household head in percentages
Residence and region and CSI
Level of coping sex of household head
score No
Low Medium
High National
2.8 68.8
8.6 11.6
11.0 Residence
Urban 2.7
68.0 8.7
12.3 11.1
Rural 3.0
66.9 9.2
12.1 11.7
Kuchi 0.0
100.0 0.0
0.0 0.0
Region Central
2.1 71.4
8.9 12.3
7.4 Central Highland
2.1 77.1
5.1 9.1
8.6 Eastern
1.8 60.9
23.6 10.7
4.8 North
2.1 70.8
9.6 12.0
7.6 North-east
3.8 71.2
5.3 8.8
14.6 South-east
2.5 71.2
6.1 11.8
10.9 South-west
4.0 64.5
4.6 13.5
17.4 West
4.2 58.1
7.8 14.1
20.0 Sex of household head
Male 2.7
68.9 8.7
11.5 10.9
Female 5.5
56.2 7.2
14.7 21.9
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9 EDUCATION
Summary . Despite major achievements in the last decade, education performance in Afghanistan is still
among the poorest in the world. Opportunities to attend education are few, especially for girls and women, and rural and Kuchi populations in general. The education picture presented by the ALCS 2013-
14 is one of modest improvements in most areas, but also with stagnation and even deterioration in other fields. The survey results suggest that the ANDS education and related gender-equity targets will
not be achieved by 2020.
Literacy indicators show steady, but modest increases. More than half 52 percent of the youth population aged 15 to 24 is now able to read and write, compared to 31 percent in 2005 and 47 percent
in the previous NRVA 2011-12. Continuous small increases are observed for the adult literacy rate, from 26 percent in NRVA 2007-08 and 31 percent in 2011-12 to 34 percent in the ALCS 2013-14.
More disconcerting results are obtained with regard to the development of school attendance ratios. Previous NRVAs already noted a slowdown of the rate of improvement of net attendance ratios and the
current ALCS confirms this negative tendency. The net attendance ratio for secondary and tertiary education still maintained upward trends: for the secondary net attendance ratio from 16 percent in
2007-08 and 33 percent in 2011-12 to 37 percent now. However, the net attendance ratio for primary education showed a decline to 55 percent, after a peak of 57 percent in 2011-12. The school attendance
information suggests that 2.3 million primary school age children in Afghanistan miss out on education and on the opportunity to learn basic life skills. The absolute numbers of persons of secondary and
tertiary education age who are not participating in education are in the same order of magnitude: 2.0 and 2.3 million, respectively.
For the first time, ALCS was able to estimate education transition rates. The gross intake rate of 45 percent is an indication that the capacity of the educational system to absorb new pupils is low, less
than half of what would be required to provide every eligible child with a place at school. On the other hand, the transition rates from one grade to the next are fairly high, resulting in a modest drop-out
percentage of 14 percent and an adequate 84 percent of school starters who reach the last grade of primary education. The transition rate from primary to secondary education is also fairly high 96
percent, but the next transition to tertiary education is much more difficult, as indicated by the low 60 percent who start at this level. These transition rat
es indicate that the problem of Afghanistan’s education system is not so much retention and drop out, but first and foremost starting school. Given
the present age-specific attendance rates, an Afghan child of 6 years old can expect to spend on average 7.7 years of his or her life in education, a very short period in international perspective.
Dominant reasons for school dropout are economic considerations – particularly opportunity costs –
and cultural barriers – especially for girls, family resistance against education and entering marriage.
In rural areas, security concerns figured also prominently for girls. To some extent, home schooling and literacy schools can compensate inadequacies of the formal education system, but they are often not a
sufficient alternative for a full course of compulsory formal education.
Gender inequity remains a major concern in education. Without exception, education gender indicators show a very disadvantaged position of women and girls in Afghanistan. In line with the increa se of
literacy levels in the adult and youth population, the literacy gender parity indices are improving, but at a slow pace. The youth literacy parity index increased from 0.52 in 2011-12 to 0.55 in the current
ALCS and the adult literacy parity index increased from 0.37 to 0.39 in the same period. The survey suggests that for the ratio of girls to boys in education only in secondary education some progress is
made. Here, the ratio increase from 53 to 55 percent. But for tertiary education attendance the ender parity index stagnated at a level of 41 percent and the ratio for primary education even declined from
74 to 71 percent.
Underlying the educational gender inequity is the very low education intake of girls. Once in school, the progression and dropout rates of girls and boys are very similar. The disadvantage of girls and
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women compared to boys and men is reflected in a low school-life expectancy 5.6 against 9.5 years of expected education, low literacy rates 19 percent for adult women and 37 percent for female youth,
against 49 and 66 percent for male adults and youth, respectively and low attendance ratios for all levels of education: 45 against 62 percent in primary education, 27 against 47 percent in secondary
education and 5 against 13 percent in tertiary education.
Residence is the other main inequity dimension in Afghanistan. For all education indicators, rural populations score significantly poorer, and the Kuchi do even worse. This applies to levels of school
attendance and literacy, and equally to gender equity indicators.
9.1 Introduction
