Empowering Rural Women in Afghanistan

Although based on research of actual events, organizations and$/$or individuals, this case study is fictional and is intended to support learning. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

Since $2011$ several aid organizations have begun focusing their efforts on women in rural areas of Afghanistan. Traditionally, rural women do not attend school, are often limited in movement outside the home and are unable to gain employment to earn money for their families.

With the assistance provided in the form of training, loans and expertise, the contributing organizations have empowered groups of women to form growers' associations and cultivate, process, and sell saffron locally$-$and, more recently, internationally. What began in $2011$ with approximately $117$ employed had grown to more than $800$ female saffron growers by $2015.$

One particular group, the Saffron Growers' Association of Afghanistan $($SGAA$),$ has experienced a great deal of success in local markets and has begun exporting their locally produced saffron to two suppliers in India, an attainable goal due to India's reduced import standards of food quality and packaging. The SGAA employees are professional and courteous, and the leader of the association is a strong$-$spoken woman with some business background who operates SGAA according to a solid business plan, created through the training provided by USAID. The SGAA saffron is of high quality by Afghanistan standards but doesn't quite meet international market standards.

A second challenge to the group's success, and by far the biggest obstacle, is the intrinsic belief in the country that women should grow and dry saffron, and men should sell it$.$ Opportunity to Grow One non$-$