PAL’s concept and assistance in improving carpet weaving handicraft sector in Afghanistan

PAL’s concept and assistance in improving carpet weaving handicraft sector in Afghanistan

Introduction

Afghanistan is a country with along and rich history in carpet weaving especially in western and northern provinces of Afghanistan. Afghan designs and quality of carpets are well-known for their beautiful color and good quality works. In north provinces of Afghanistan carpet weaving is a traditional business and through this business they accomplish their 60-80% of their expenses.

In eastern Afghanistan, carpet weaving was introduced and promoted since the 1960s however traditionally could never cope with quality and design of the carpets produced in the north. On the one side carpet weaving became more familiar in eastern Afghanistan when Afghan refugees return from Pakistan. On the other nowadays mayor Afghan traders in Kabul and in the north, develop new designs with software programs based on the furniture fashion abroad for each season. Any well trained carpet weaving group in the country would be therefore in principle able to deliver high quality carpets to international standards, and by this way, would be able to increase their income.

Most carpet trading companies from Afghanistan and Pakistan are providing row material and paying daily wage to the carpet weaving workers or pay according to Square meter weaved carpets, provided a good quality carpet is produced within a given time e.g. for the spring season in Europe.

Traditionally most of the females in Afghanistan are house wives and strictly prohibited to work out side the house and have their own sufficient income. Therefore there is no or very limited opportunity for women to generate income (limited source, lack of technical training to women, no access to market etc.). Considering this situation, PAL assisted to local CDC based on their request to upgrade the skills of community members in several months long training, via trained experts from NGOs or traders to upgrade their knowledge and skills on international quality requirements in carpet production in eastern Afghanistan. Carpet weaving would in turn create income opportunities for women and would increase their income due to the raised quality of the carpets in eastern Afghanistan compared to before.

The PAL

PAL is a 6 year EC funded project (2004-2009) in Eastern Afghanistan, partnered with the MRRD and managed by GTZ International Services.

PAL assisted and facilitated the process of participatory development planning on CDC, Cluster CDC (CDCC) at district level to respond to the needs and requirements of carpet weavers based on their proposals submitted to PAL.

More than 5 % of the proposals submitted to SM-AL by CCDCS from 20 districts of Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar provinces, and requested assistance in the field of carpet weaving. PAL’s assistance is to assist those who try to help themselves and are committed to the development of their own living conditions. Thus, an own contribution and performance of the potential beneficiaries is required.

PAL’s Concept Regarding Carpet weaving

PAL’s assistance is always demand driven based on participatory, bottom up planning with CDCs. Through this planning process CDCs requested assistance for upgrading the knowledge of women in the field of carpet weaving. PAL’s strategy of implementing projects is to provide vocational training on international level carpet weaving to eligible and interested women in rural part of eastern Afghanistan.

1-  Carpet weaving training project in Khewa district.

Initially PAL assists the implementation of carpet weaving training in Khewa district of Nangrahar province in 2007. The project was implemented through an NGO as implementing partner (WROYA) and took 6 months. In total 20 trainees were trained in this training project from two villages 10 trainees from Serajal village and 10 trainees from Khishko village.

Lessons Learned: The skills of the trainers were just sufficient to train the female beneficiaries of traditional eastern Afghan designs and skills. In turn the quality of the carpets and the price they could gain in the market was low and subsequently also the profit for the women. The NGO failed to make the project sustainable in economical sense. Women were always dependent on a raw material supplier and the margin for their work was finally small. A permanent discussion on the performance availability of the female trainer and quality and remaining amount of the raw material made the implementation of the project laborious.

2- Carpet weaving training project in Dari Noor District

Based on the Lessons learned of the Khewa project, PAL changed its concept and facilitated the linkage to professional carpet traders that were able and interested in cooperation.

Based on a request of 5 villages, PAL assists 125 interested semi skilled women in Dari Noor district of Nangarhar Province to get the chance to upgrade their knowledge and skills in carpet weaving according to international levels. The ambitious goal was to upgrade the skills and quality of carpet production in Eastern AFG to international standards and link producers in remote areas to international markets.

PAL’s concept of the project consists in the training of 125 women in design and quality of carpets according to international standards.

The respective CDCs identified an experienced carpet trader, Quassimy Broth. Ltd that was endorsed by PAL. This way, a so called Public Private Partnership (PPP) project could be started.

The traders proved to have successful established marketing linkage to international markets and were able to provide new designs and advice on quality for internationally marketable carpets. The trader himself contributed in

a)      Organising high quality durable carpet frames and transport them to remoter areas in eastern AFG

b)      provision of computer printed innovative quality designs

c)      Delegate an own supervisor to the area for organising the trainings, production of carpets and transport of inputs and carpets to Kabul.

d)      Assist in the screening of sub-trainers and trainees

e)      Provide high quality raw material and organise the necessary tools

f)        Technical and quality control of the carpets.

This way, the trader contribute roughly 12 000 US$ to the project.

PAL funded 25 good quality carpet weaving frames and other necessary carpet weaving tools while the raw material for training was supplied by the trader. On each frame one sub-trainer was in charge who trained in turn 3-5 trainees (depending on frame size).

A common assessment of all stakeholder were conducted to identify 25 interested and sufficiently skilled women that should serve as sub trainers for the carpet weaving project, along with a selection of suitable trainees. This process was assisted by PAL.

As own contribution the community agreed to set up a training centre at a central site between the concerned 5 CDCs. However after longer discussions on accessibility for the young women and dispute over contribution and ownership of the centre, action was postponed. Since the frames were delivered and to avoid the delay of the project, CCDC and PAL decided to set up the frames in each village individually to ensure accessibility of the trainees to training centre. On each frame 4 -5 trainees could work and 1 sub-trainer. The project was initially approved for 6 months for administrative reasons but thought from begin on to last for 9-12 months and subsequently 3-4 rounds of carpets completed by the work of the beneficiaries.

A midterm evaluation conducted by all stakeholders revealed, that start and progress of the carpet weaving project was delayed and slower than expected, however based on promises of the community to compensate the time, since the set up has been properly completed and on recommendations of private partner, the carpet traders, the project was extended by 3 months.

During training session each trainee received 1 USD/day food allowance from PAL for the first 6 months. From 3 month onwards trainers carried out a performance assessment to select those trainees who performed better and provided them with additionally incentives of 1 US$/day.

PAL staff along with the trainers and CDC was responsible to monitor and follow up the training project in entire duration of the project and trace deviation, find solution and run the project process in smoothly manners.

Achievements

The following has been made with PAL’s assistance in the carpet weaving projects:

1.) Skills and knowledge on quality and designs in carpet production of 145 women in rural areas of eastern Afghanistan was improved.

This also led to an improved reputation of the 125 women in their families and villages.

2.) Women were provided with 25 high quality long lasting carpet weaving frames

3.) 145 women generated additional income during the training (particularly the trainers and sub trainers) and those women that received incentive payments due to better than average performance

4.) The CDCs and beneficiaries were linked to a carpet trader with international experience and market relations. That provides them the chance to continue to work in future provided CDCs are able to meet quality standard in the required time

5.) In addition PAL provided assistance to the entire value chain on wool production and processing allowing the CDC to generate additional profit from each processing step:

PAL’s assistance in improving carpet weaving in Dar I Noor must be seen as part of a integrated concept. Since large areas of suitable pasture were available in the mountains of Dar I Noor, labor forces and an old tradition of using (low quality) wool from the traditional sheep, PAL assisted in promotion of a new high quality wool sheep “Ghazni” sheep. 500 of the wool sheep were distributed to 6 villages of upper Dari Noor district, that provided the potential of getting easily 1500 – 2000 sheep within 3-4 years, sufficient to produce enough high quality wool for a center of at least 50 frames. Besides Basic Veterinary Workers assigned from the village by the CDCs were trained to supply veterinary services in the remote mountain areas of Dar I Noor.

In addition women from the villages were trained in improved wool processing methods. After one year the number of sheep increased and reached 840, while there were also some losses due to weak non commitment of the beneficiaries in feeding, vaccination and care as well as misuse and weak performance of BVW. However now the sheep provide good quality of wool. The wool can be turned in good quality thread for carpets that have a market for itself and provide income to women in this remote area.

As described above 125 women in Dar I Noor have the chance to use these thread and weave international level carpet and sale it international market.

Now as the project come to the end trainees are able to continue the business and make profitable home based income for their family

 Below you will find a rough calculation on the profit women can gain from carpet weaving:

On the basis of discussion with women it is estimated that they would like to work on carpet weaving an average of 4 hours daily. It is planned that these women will reach the level of working for 4 hours daily within 6 – 12 months at which time their income will double to approximately 12,000 AFS monthly.

Lessons Learned:

• Any carpet weaving project should compensate for work time as short as any possible, definitely no longer than 4-6 months. Payment should be after an initial training period based on output /sqm and quality.
• Particularly in eastern Afghanistan the ultra conservative attitude of families, even in the mountain where they claim to be more liberal, prevent that women are learning from male trainers thus delaying technology transfer, since no afghan women with respective skills would travel to this area.
• Development in eastern Afghanistan is therefore slower and takes longer than elsewhere even in Afghanistan, as could be clearly stated by the PPP partner who is working with several 100 other groups in Afghanistan.
• Beneficiaries and their family quickly overestimate their skills and knowledge and believe that we only some progress they will be able to compete in international markets.
• There is a strong receiver mentality after years of emergency aid in eastern Afghanistan that makes it difficult to convince people to stick to their promises and commitment laid down in mutual (written) agreements although through NSP it is national wide accepted to contribute 10% to the project
• Alike it is difficult to get transparence of any interaction down to (female) beneficiaries in the area since they usually not participate in the meetings and depend on information provided by family members, shuras or representatives of different stakeholders.
• Even simple skills and tasks of a value chain such as sorting of wool according to quality and quality of shearing must be considered and freshly trained despite the fact that communities claims that they this is an old tradition. This again reveals a complete unrealistic picture and assessment of their own skills and knowledge as compared to competitors within and outside their own country.

SUMMARY

PAL in cooperation with private partner Qasimi Brothers Co has achieved that

1.)    125 women upgraded their knowledge on international requirements in design and quality and improved their skills to a step in this requirements. Female beneficiaries will forward their skills to the neighbor and to their other family members as well and get a better self esteem and consideration.

2.)    An improved value chain in the field of improved wool sheep, Veterinary services, wool processing and finally carpet processing has been supported and provide the chance of the CDC to meet the demand and requirements of in national and international markets.

DISCLAIMER

This article has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and the GTZ IS. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or the GTZ IS.

The Project for Alternative Livelihoods in Eastern Afghanistan (PAL) is located at Jalalabad and funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by GTZ IS