Investigating Afghanistan's Rural Development Challenges and their Solutions

Rural development is one of the main concerns of developing countries. The consequences of lack of development in rural areas such as widespread poverty, unemployment and migration have led to more attention to rural development. According to the latest report of the Statistics Center of Afghanistan (2020), out of the total population of this country, about 23.4 million people (71%), live in rural areas. At the same time, rural areas face various economic, social, cultural, managerial and environmental challenges. Therefore, identifying Afghanistan's rural development challenges is a prerequisite to developing policies, plans, and providing a flexible model for achieving sustainable rural development. In this regard, the main purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the major challenges of rural development in Afghanistan. The statistical population included 60 experts on agricultural and rural development. The data collection tool was a questionnaire and its method was face-to-face interview. For data analysis, coefficient of variation and confirmatory factor analysis were used. The results of this study showed that several challenges including economic (such as lack of credits and investments in rural areas), social (such as women’s low participation in rural activities), environmental (such as improper exploitation of groundwater), physical (such as the weakness or lack of rural-urban network), and managerial (especially the dominance of unskilled laborers in rural economic activities) challenges, have influenced rural development in Afghanistan, respectively. Undoubtedly, any effort to eliminate them will play a significant role in achieving sustainable rural and consequently national development of this country.