{"id":3003,"date":"2016-04-07T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T04:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/?p=3003"},"modified":"2016-04-07T14:02:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T09:32:22","slug":"epd-launches-rapid-market-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/?p=3003","title":{"rendered":"EPD Launches Rapid Market Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_04841.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3008\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_04841-1000x666.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0484\" width=\"325\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_04841-1000x666.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_04841-2000x1333.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><\/a>On 6th April 2016, EQUALITY for Peace and Development (EPD) launched an assessment entitled \u201c<strong>Rapid Market Assessment: Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs\u2019 Access to Market<\/strong>\u201d. The assessment analyzes the current status of women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, the country\u2019s economic outlook, the socioeconomic context for women and women\u2019s role in private sector. Moreover, it highlights the improvements that have taken place in the living conditions, education levels, political participation and the economic status of Afghan women in the post-Taliban era. The assessment includes a number of recommendations designed to improve women\u2019s participation in the business sector.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0455.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3010\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0455-1000x666.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0455\" width=\"325\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0455-1000x666.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0455-2000x1333.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><\/a>The launch event gathered over 60 participants from government, civil society, NGOs and the media. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Edress Omarzad, Executive Director of EPD, who was joined by Ms. Humaira Saqib, Head of Civil Society Joint Working Group; Ms. Manizha Wafiq, Chairperson of LEAD Board; Ms. Kubra Dastgirzada, Head of Farah Farhat Faizi Agricultural Production Company; Mr. Shahmahmood Miakhel, Country Director, Afghanistan United States Institute of Peace (USIP); Mr. Mohammad Naeem, Program Director at Center for International Private Enterprise and\u00a0 Mr. Abdul Halim Achakzai, Senior Associate at EPD.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_06401.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3011\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_06401-1000x666.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0640\" width=\"325\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_06401-1000x666.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_06401-2000x1333.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><\/a>In his remarks, Mr. Miakhail emphasised the practical effectiveness of current trade and entrepreneurship policies.\u00a0 \u201cHuge numbers of policies and projects have not benefited entrepreneurs. Therefore, the time has come to examine efficiency and quality of them\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ms. Saqib discussed the challenges which women entrepreneurs are currently facing. In her view, \u201cone criteria for measuring the development of a country is women\u2019s involvement in all sectors. Unfortunately, cultural, economic and social challenges are the main barriers that hinder women\u2019s participation in Afghanistan\u2019s business sector\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ms. Wafiq gave a concise overview of the main findings of the research report. She argued that the government should allocate more budget for the promotion of women in commerce. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mr. Naeem discussed the problems and legal gaps that currently exist in commercial law. He believes that the government needs to undertake a concerted effort across customs and other agencies in order to enhance women\u2019s role in the trade. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mr. Achakzai discussed the methodology that was used for carrying out the research, and gave a detailed breakdown of its recommendations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Finally, Ms. Dastgirzada talked about the trajectory of women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, pointing out that despite facing many problems, Afghan women are at present successful in the business sector.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Rapid Market Assessment has been published in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/RMA-English-Revised.pdf\">English<\/a><\/span>, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/RMA-Dari-Revised.pdf\">Dari<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/RMA-Pashtu-Revised.pdf\">Pashto<\/a><\/span> in our website. For more information and updates about the launch event, please check our Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 6th April 2016, EQUALITY for Peace and Development (EPD) launched an assessment entitled \u201cRapid Market Assessment: Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs\u2019 Access to Market\u201d. The assessment analyzes the current status of women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, the country\u2019s economic outlook, the socioeconomic context for women and women\u2019s role in private sector. Moreover, it highlights the improvements that have taken place in the living conditions, education levels, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/epd-launches-rapid-market-assessment\/\"> Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3003"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3023,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions\/3023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epd-afg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}