Kabul

Kabul province has a total population of 2,425,067. There are an estimated 78,593 households in the province and households on average have 7 members. The following table shows the population by district.

Around 19% of the population of Kabul lives in rural districts while 81% lives in urban areas. Around 51% of the population is male and 49% is female. Pashtu is spoken by around sixty percent of the population and Dari is spoken by around forty percent. A small number of people located in 5 villages speaks Pashaie.

Kabul province also has a population of Kuchis or nomads whose numbers vary in different seasons. In winter 49,754 individuals, or 2.1% of the overall Kuchi population, stay in Kabul. Of those Kuchi that live in Kabul in winter, 47% are short-range migratory, 16% are long-range migratory and 37% are settled. Three quarters of both the long-range and the short-range migratory Kuchis are only partially migratory, so a part of the community remains behind in the winter area. Long range Kuchis from the provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman, and in much smaller numbers from Kapisa, Khost, and Wardak, come to Kabul in summer and this makes Kabul the most important summer province for the Kuchi. The most important summer areas for the short range migratory Kuchi are the Paghman, Dehsabz, Bagrami, Charasyab, Goldara, Surobi and Shakardara districts of Kabul province. The most important summer areas for the long range migratory Kuchi are Wardak, Parwan and Logar provinces. The Kuchi population in the summer is 220.251, which represents 9.1% of the total Kuchi population.

Source: NRVA 2005

On average only a quarter (25%) of households have access to safe toilet facilities. The situation is better in the urban area where 32% of households have safe toilets. The following table shows the kinds of toilet facilities used by households in the province:

Source: NRVA 2005

On average 61% of households in Kabul Province have access to electricity with the majority of these relying on public electricity. Access to electricity is greater in the urban areas where nearly three quarters (71%) of households have access to electricity; however, this figure falls to under a third (29%) in rural areas, and only half of these (14%) have access to public electricity.

The transport infrastructure in Kabul is reasonably well developed, with around two thirds (68.1%) of roads in the province able to take car traffic in all seasons, and a quarter (26.2%) able to take car traffic in some seasons. However, in 5.4% of the province there are no roads at all, as shown in the following table:

Creating the conditions in which a dynamic and competitive private sector can flourish, is key to promoting economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction. Kabul is a centre of trade and commerce, particularly in the urban centre, as well as an agricultural province with production concentrated in the rural districts. More than half of all households (53%) in the province, including around two thirds (61%) of urban households and one third (31%) households in rural areas derive income from trade and services. Around a quarter of households (27%) earn some income through nonfarm related labor, including one in five (22%) urban and two in five (40%) rural households. Agriculture is a major source of revenue for 11% of households in Kabul Province, including 41% of rural households and 3% of households in the urban area. Fifty two percent of rural households and 1% of urban households own or manage agricultural land or garden plots in the province. Livestock also accounts for income for 8% of rural households, as the following table shows:

Enhancing licit agricultural productivity, creating incentives for non-farm investment, developing rural infrastructure, and supporting access to skills development and financial services will allow individuals, households and communities to participate licitly and productively in the economy. As agriculture represents the major source of income for a tenth of the households in the province, rural development will be a key element of progress in Kabul. The most important field crops grown in Kabul province include wheat, maize and barley. The most common crops grown in garden plots include grapes (68%) and fruit and nut trees (30%).

Nearly a third of households with access to fertilizer use this on field crops (29%) and to a much greater degree on garden plots (60%), although a tenth of households use fertilizer on both field and garden (11%). The main types of fertilizer used by households in the province are shown in the following table:

Source: NRVA 2005

Ensuring good quality education and equitable access to education and skills are some of the important ways to raise human capital, reduce poverty and facilitate economic growth. The overall literacy rate in Kabul province is 58%, however, while two thirds of men are literate (66%), this is true for around half of women (48%). In the population aged between 15 and 24 the situation for nearly three quarters (73%) of men and more than half (56%) of women are literate. However, the Kuchi population in the province has particularly low levels of literacy with just 2.8% of men and no women able to read and write.

On average just under half (46%) of children between 6 and 13 are enrolled in school. The propotion is similar for boys (48%) and girls (44%). Amongst the Kuchi population, one in twenty boys (5%) and one in fifty girls (2%) attend school in Kabul during the winter months and one in fifty boys and girls (2%) attend school in the province during the summer.

Overall there are 347 primary and secondary schools in the province catering for 746,626 students. Boys account for 59% of students and 73% of schools are boys’ schools. There are 19,497 teachers working in schools in the Kabul province, more than three-fifths of whom are women (63%).

Source: CSO Afghanistan Statistical Yearbook 2006

Access to schools is easier in Kabul than in many other provinces. Primary and secondary schools are located less than five kilometers away for about 70% of students and high schools are located at that distance for a little over half of students.

Kabul province also has a number of higher education facilities. There are four main universities in the province. Kabul University has many morning and night shift courses in faculties including engineering, agriculture, science, journalism, pharmacy, economics, fine arts, psychology, veterinary science. There are fourteen faculties teaching in the morning shift and eleven in night shift. In 2005 there were 9748 students enrolled at the university 7818 men (80%) and 1930 women (20%). Of those, 2961 students were in their first year, 2455 men (83%) and 506 women (17%). In total, 2235 students live in dormitories provided by the University including 2150 (96%) men and 85 (4%) women.

The second university is Kabul Polytechnic University which has three faculties; construction, geology and mines, and electro mechanics. In 2005 there were 2519 students enrolled at the university 2448 men (97%) and 71 women (3%). In total 1139 male students live in dormitories provided by the University.

The third university is Kabul Medical University which has three faculties: curative medicine, paediatric medicine and stomatalogy. In 2005 there were 2745 students enrolled at the university 2089 men (76%) and 656 women (24%). Of those, 75 students were in their first year, 62 men (83%) and 13 women (17%). In total 660 students live in dormitories provided by the University including 620 (94%) men and 40 (6%) women.

The forth university is the Education University which has five faculties including science, social sciences, literature and sport. In 2005 there were 3745 students enrolled at the university2104 men (56%) and 1641 women (44%). In total 328 students live in dormitories provided by the University including 320 (98%) men and 8 (2%) women.

Kabul also has a number of private universities.

There are nine vocational schools with 176 teachers catering for a total of 2633 students, 78% of whom are men and 22% are women. In 2005, 308 students graduated from vocational schools in Kabul province as shown in the following table:

There are also two teacher-training institutes in Kabul Province. The first one, Sayed Jamaludine Teacher Training had 4518 students in 2005, 26% of whom were men and 74% women. Eight hundred and thirteen new teachers graduated from Sayed Jamaludine Teacher Training institute in 2005, including 52% women and 48% men.

Ensuring the availability of basic health and hospital services, and developing human resources in the health sector is essential to reduce the incidence of disease, increase life expectancy and enable the whole population to participate in sustainable development. A basic infrastructure of health services exists in Kabul province. In 2005 there were 63 health centers and 23 hospitals with a total of 3203 beds. In total there are 426 health posts in the 14 districts of the province. Thirty six 36 Basic Health Centres (BHC) and twenty four Comprehensive Health Centres (CHC) are supported by different NGOs.

There were also 643 doctors and 4790 nurses employed by the Ministry of Health working in the province, which represented 55% decrease in the number or doctors (down from 1429) but around a 7% increase in the number of nurses (up from 3000) since 2003. The major health facilities in the province are shown in the following table:

Source: UNAMA

The province also has 3,083 pharmacies of which 3063 (99%) are owned privately and 20 (1%) are run by the government.

Many communities do not have a health worker permanently present in their community. Thirty two percent of men’s shura and 40% of women’s shura reported that there was no community health worker present, and both groups most commonly said that their closest health facility was a Basic Health Centre (BHC) or clinic without beds. One person in ten (10% of the population) has a health center and one in six (15%) has a dispensary in their villages and doesn’t have to travel outside their own villages to seek medical attention. A little more than half of the population has to travel less than 5 kilometers and more than one-fifth of population has to travel more than ten kilometers to reach their closest health center.

Building the capacities, opportunities and security of extremely poor and vulnerable Afghans through a process of economic empowerment is essential in order to reduce poverty and increase self-reliance. The level of economic hardship in Kabul is reasonably low. One-fifth of the households in the province (20%) report having problems satisfying their food needs at least 3 – 6 times a year and a further fifth of households (20%) faced this problem up to three times a year, whereas over half (57%) of households never experience problems of this kind, as the following table shows:

Source: NRVA 2005

Of those households affected, nearly half reported that they had not recovered at all from shocks experienced in the last 12 months (47%), and another half said they had recovered only partially (49%).