Afghanistan’s Displaced People : A Socio-Economic Profile, 2013-2014

Yde-Jensen, Thea ; Krishnan, Nandini ; Tan, Xiayun ; Wieser, Christina

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: LIVING STANDARDS MEASUREMENT;    EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT;    LABOR SKILLS;    LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION;    LABOR MARKET;   

RP-ID  :  129249

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Afghans represent the world’s largestprotracted refugee population, and one of the largestpopulations to be repatriated to their country of origin inthis century. Between 2002 and 2016, over six millionrefugees returned to Afghanistan from neighboring countries.In 2016 alone, returnees numbered more than a million. In analready difficult context, large-scale internal displacementand return from outside have strained the delivery of publicservices in Afghanistan and increased competition for scarceeconomic opportunities, not only for the displaced, but forthe population at large. This note aims at contributing toour understanding of displacement in Afghanistan bycomparing the socioeconomic profiles of three populations:(i) former refugees who returned to Afghanistan between 2002and 2014 (“pre-2015 returnees”); (ii) internally displacedpersons (“IDPs”); and (iii) non-displaced persons (“hosts”).The note captures and compares these groups’ situations at aspecific time-point, using data from the 2013-14 AfghanistanLiving Conditions Survey (ALCS). Importantly, the resultsdocument socioeconomic conditions just prior to the transferof security responsibilities from international troops tothe Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in 2014, whichwas associated with a subsequent decline in aid, bothsecurity and civilian, and a sharp drop in economicactivity. The results presented here cover the largestreturn of Afghans to the county following the fall of theTaliban in 2002, but precede the more recent large-scalereturn of Afghan refugees from Pakistan in 2016-17. Futurepublications will extend the findings summarized here withanalysis of new and existing data covering this recentinflux. This research is part of an ongoing effort todocument population displacement challenges and solutions inAfghanistan over time. Data from ALCS 2013-14 establishbaseline socio-economic profiles for returned refugees,IDPs, and non-displaced hosts. Further research and analysisnow in progress will document how these conditions havechanged since 2013-14, and will distill evidence for policyto improve socio-economic outcomes among Afghanistan’sdisplaced and non-displaced people.