Women Restarting
Female entrepreneurship for internally displaced women
Afghanistan is experiencing one of the most significant internal displacement crises globally. For more than forty years, the country has been marked by persistent conflict, chronic insecurity, and recurring climate-related disasters. The escalation of fighting between government forces and the Taliban in 2021 accelerated a massive wave of internal displacement. In 2025, according to the most recent data (June 2025) published by UNHCR, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan is estimated at approximately 3.2 million (official source: https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/afg).
The Impact on Women and Girls
Due to the economic crisis, cultural taboos, and restrictions imposed by the Taliban, Afghan women face extreme difficulties in accessing even essential services such as healthcare and humanitarian aid. For women and girls forcibly displaced from one place to another within Afghanistan, access is virtually impossible. Lacking a source of income, a safe place to live, and often even identity documents, the survival of many depends on the charity of relatives or strangers.
The Women Restarting Project: Voices That Rekindle the Path within the Internally Displaced People: From Emergency to Enterprise initiative
In response to this dire emergency, NOVE and the Afghan association Harakat launched a project aimed at promoting the socio-economic independence of internally displaced women and girls in Kabul and Jalalabad. The project expanded employment opportunities for 50 displaced women and supported the creation or revitalization of 30 women-led microenterprises.
All participants received training in entrepreneurship, financial management, and marketing, aimed at the creation or relaunch of microenterprises. The training courses lasted three months, at the end of which participants prepared and presented their business plans to a specialized evaluation committee (composed of representatives from the Women’s Chamber of Commerce, NOVE, Harakat, and other stakeholders).
The presenters of the 30 business plans deemed the most solid and promising each received technical and financial support amounting to USD 2,100, combined with a three-month coaching program designed to help them overcome initial challenges.
Donor: Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund
Project duration: April 2024 – January 31, 2026