What remains after exit? Evidence of lasting change in northern Afghanistan’s carpet sector

Projects using the market systems development (MSD) approach claim that their most successful interventions create impact for target groups that extends beyond the life of the project. Yet, such claims are rarely validated. Very few ex-post studies have been commissioned, and this gap represents an oversight.

In response, the ILO’s Systems Change Initiative (SCI) reopened its engagement in Afghanistan’s carpet sector from 2018 to 2021. It reviewed two ILO sister projects: Road to Jobs (R2J) funded by Sweden (2015-2020); and its successor Road to Decent Jobs for All Afghans (R2DJ4ALL) funded by the United States of America (2020-2022). Both projects applied the MSD approach in a highly challenging environment to foster new and improved employment outcomes in a sector deeply embedded in Afghanistan’s cultural and economic fabric.

Complementing this study, the authors also reviewed closed interventions from the projects’ dairy and livestock sectors, and have documented their summarized findings.