Decision-making Indicators of community representation

11 Household shocks and community preferences SUMMARY. This chapter presents various problems of households, adopted coping strategies to deal with these problems, and preferences for community development that are partly related to these problems. More than two-thirds 71 percent of Afghan households experienced in the year before the survey at least one household shock – a negative effect of events that is beyond their control. It came as a surprise that the most frequently experienced shock was the inlux of refugees and IDPs: no less than 60 percent of all households mentioned this, followed by 39 percent that experienced any natural disaster, 22 percent suffering from agriculture and livestock problems, and 18 percent facing drinking water problems. Incidence of most types of shocks has declined compared to 2005, but the largest part of this improvement is attributed to urban areas, which could be interpreted as an indication of stabilizing and improving conditions there. The most prevalent strategies to deal with these challenges were reducing household expenditures, community support, food reduction and taking loans or credit. Income-generating and food programmes that assisted Afghan households in the year before the survey reached over 450 thousand households and contributed to food security, health and productive investments. A rather consistent picture emerges across the urban, rural and Kuchi communities and across gender about the main priorities for community development. Heading the list are improvement of drinking water and health facilities, for rural areas in addition rehabilitation of irrigation systems, and for urban areas road repair.

11.1 Introduction

Development policy should take into account reality as experienced by communities, households and individuals, and as reflected in their preferences for change. This chapter presents the inventory of development priorities expressed by male and female Shuras Section 11.3. These preferences may be the result of temporary or structural setbacks that can be experienced as shocks. The subsequent Section 11.2 provides an overview of household shocks and associated coping strategies.

11.2 Household shocks and coping strategies

Afghanistan is a country with a high-risk profile, due to a combination of climatic and natural circumstances and being a historically grown hotbed of social and political conflict and economic vulnerability. Households that face risky events with negative outcomes that are outside their control experience shocks. The consequences of household shocks can be temporary and relatively mild, but they can also shake the very existence of the household and its members, for which no coping strategy can provide an answer. Like in 2005, the latest NRVA investigated into the shocks experienced by households in the 12 months preceding the interview. For reasons of comparability, the analysis approach of the 2005 report is repeated on the basis of the 20078 data. A basic classification of shocks is again made into generic shocks and idiosyncratic shocks. The first relate to general occurrences, like floods, livestock diseases, drought or general insecurity, whereas the second refer to events affecting specific households or persons, such as the death of a household member, loss of employment or a burnt-down home. The box on household shocks below provides the classification of specific shocks into larger categories. A few new categories were added in the 20078 questionnaire. 1 109 _________________________________________________________ 1 Added categories refer to the influx of refugees and IDPs, loss of employment by a household member and reduced salary of a household member. Household shocks and community preferences