FLOW- Year One Results Afghanistan

Through the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands’ Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) programme, between 2016 and 2020, Women for Women International will be supporting 11,000 marginalised women in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nigeria to strengthen agency and self-reliance, and tackle violence.

As part of this project, we are able to offer some our women graduates in Afghanistan advanced training in advocacy and leadership skills through a dedicated, three-month programme.

In Afghanistan, more than a third (36%) of women report not being allowed to participate in any household decisions. For the Afghan women we work with, only 27% of women report being able to influence household financial decision-making when they enrolled in our core programme - this increases significantly to 96% at graduation only twelve months later (2015 graduates). Findings from a recent study we conducted, we know that Afghan women graduates are having more informal influence with neighbours and extended families but face many challenges in being heard in community decision-making mechanisms.

Women reported widespread attitudinal and behavioural changes among their male relatives, and cited examples of men voicing and demonstrating their support for women’s rights.