Hassan was born in 1996 into a relatively well-off family in Afghanistan, where he and his siblings farmed on their father’s land. However, in 2016 his father died in a car accident and the costs of the funeral considerably reduced his household’s resources. By 2018, Hassan’s family fell into extreme poverty as they were forced to flee to the city of Herat amidst fighting in their district.
In Herat, Hassan began casual work as a rickshaw driver and agricultural worker. However, the pandemic in 2020 severely affected his economic activities. His mother and wife contracted Covid-19 in the same year, and as they became destitute, his family was unable to obtain medical treatment due to a lack of resources.
Hassan’s experience marks a general trend in downward mobility in Afghanistan prior to and during the pandemic. Indeed, the presence of insecurity in Afghan districts was associated with a higher probability of welfare loss into the peak of the pandemic in spring and summer of 2020, according to analysis of nationally representative household data in 2019/20.
Figure 1: Key turning points in wellbeing during Hassan’s life
The image above (figure 1) plots the described points in Hassan’s life.
The graph notes that Covid-19 on top of insecurity deepened Hassan’s economic difficulties and restricted access to his regular means of coping, such as through migration or access to health services, causing his wellbeing to deteriorate over time.
New online course: poverty-focused mixed methods research and evaluations
Hassan’s life history reflects an increasingly common prevalence of complex crises—such as Covid-19, conflict, economic crises, and climate-related disasters— that the world faces today, which constrains poverty escapes and inequality reduction.
Understanding experiences like Hassan’s, their generalisability, and developing effective policy and programming responses to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities requires holistic methodologies capable of addressing complexity amidst contexts of rapid change.
Yet undertaking mixed methods research and evaluations on these complex issues can be challenging. It is in this context that the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) is offering a specialist professional course on mixed methods research and evaluations on poverty and inequality.
This new specialist course is convened by Vidya Diwakar, Deputy Director of CPAN. Vidya is a mixed-methods researcher and policy analyst, with extensive experience working in research institutes and universities.
For more information about this new course, contact Vidya Diwakar directly, visit the webpage for course details or apply for the course here.
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