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Background and use of SL
This study undertook longitudinal research over a twelve month period in the cities
of Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad, and conducted parallel short term studies
in Mazar-i-Sharif and Pul-i-Khumri. The project's overall objective was
to inform the national policy process - to influence it in such a way that
policy making responds more meaningfully to the needs and priorities of poor and
vulnerable urban families, and builds on their energy and capabilities. The
research used a livelihoods framework to draw out livelihoods assets, the contexts
of vulnerability, and to identify economic changes and shifts in the livelihood
trajectories of households along a continuum of livelihood security and vulnerability.
It paid particular attention to the institutional contexts of urban livelihoods,
commenting that the standard framework emphasises this aspect too little for work
in urban analysis. The framework was therefore adapted to draw out the prominent
role played by politics and power in urban settings, and the key role played by
municipalities in determining how effectively people can undertake their day-to-day
productive and reproductive activities. Key
issues emerging from the study were access to land, services and social infrastructure
including social networks. Municipalities' unwillingness to develop a pro-poor
land policy that acknowledges informal settlements is a serious problem leading
to widespread social exclusion. The asset base of the studied urban households
is not sufficiently diversified to lift them out of poverty in any lasting way.
Lack of accessible health and education services makes human assets vulnerable
and developing them unlikely. While informal sector work provides poor households
with an immediate source of income, families end up being more vulnerable with
irregular, low-paying jobs. The sector is characterised by low and erratic incomes
and high seasonality. Home-based work is largely the domain of women and is characterised
by even lower incomes. Social networks are an important survival strategy but
are under strain in some cases. It
is clear from the study that the urban poor and the livelihoods they pursue are
closely linked with municipal structures and patterns of local governance that
largely determine their access to or exclusion from necessary resources. In the
Afghan urban context, these structures and patterns are often inefficient, impeding
the urban poor's search for sustainable livelihoods. | 
