Read the full report - Danish Refugee Council

56 DRC / DANISH REFUGEE COUNCILvulnerabilities of poor households to shocks through the creation and maintenance of assets,promoting livelihoods should look at:Enhancing beneficiaries’ productivity and employment opportunities: The efficiency of cashbasedintervention in reaching long-term outcomes is linked to their ability to enable cashtransfers beneficiaries to participate in other initiatives that promote sustainable livelihoods.Productive activities necessarily involve risks, which appear more threatening to the poorthan the better off, keeping them in near-subsistence activities 47 . KIS inhabitants are furtherfaced with considerable barriers in accessing the labour market and engaging in stableincome-generating activities, let alone productive ones. As underlined by the data collectedin our sample, as well as previous research 48 , lack of marketable skills, lack of supportingnetworks and discrimination prevent them from entering the labour market and impede theiraccess to stable livelihood opportunities. In these regards, both the existing economiccontext in Afghanistan, the social discrimination experienced by KIS inhabitants mightendanger the outputs of training programmes by training individuals unable to insertthemselves in the labour market. DRC should therefore look at promoting these networksand connection throughout training programmes and after graduation. Building on DRC’sexisting experience in training should therefore prove effective. As training has until this dateachieved to have attendance without cash incentives, there is no reason to introduce a cashcomponent that might attract individuals with less personal motivation: cash-for training doesnot appear as a relevant solution in the KIS. However, providing cash grants at the end oftrainings to allow beneficiaries to set up an income-generating activity and following-up theirprogression regularly can be a sustainable solution to ensure their transition out of theprogramme is effective and useful.Increasing beneficiaries’ capacity for consumption: However, poor households have riskmanagement strategies that can be supported by entering into low risk activities, diversifyingsources of income through activities with different risk profiles. 49 Both data collected for thisstudy and previous research 50 underlined the potential of involving women in productiveactivities in the KIS. By increasing access to skills and potentially diversifying sources ofincome- through training of women in the households in income-generating activities, forinstance, cash-for training can foster investment of household members in micro enterprisesbased on the demand of the market.3. Building on DRC’s existing programmesBased on a study of Solidarités International’s food-for-training programme in the KIS, a Samuel HallStudy Sustaining the Working Poor in Kabul Informal Settlements published in January 2013 anddiscussions with organization involved in training programmes, the implementation of a cash-fortrainingprogramme in the KIS should focus on the following elements:Cash should not be provided as a compensation for participation in training programmes:CEDO’s successful experience in providing trainings to over 2000 IDPs in the KIS withoutincentives (monetary or in-kind) show it is feasible, and prevents enrolment of individualsinterested in the food component rather than the acquisition of skills. A key element is toraise the awareness of the community about the benefits of the programme.Post-training assistance could be provided in the form of small grants: the major barrier toestablishing micro-enterprises is the start-up capital , including costs for machineries and47 FARRINGTON, J., HARVEY, P., and SLATER, R. (2005), Cash Transfers in the Context of Pro-Poor Growth, Discussionpaper for OECD/DAC Povnet Risk and Vulnerability Task Group, Overseas Development Institute.48 SAMUEL HALL CONSULTING (2012), Sustaining the Working Poor in the Kabul Informal Settlements, SolidaritésInternational.49 FARRINGTON, HARVEY, SLATER (Ibid).50 SAMUEL HALL CONSULTING (2012), Sustaining the Working Poor in the Kabul Informal Settlements, SolidaritésInternational.