Impact of Education on Poverty Alleviation in Afghanistan: An Empirical Evaluation

Abstract

Afghanistan has one of the lowest education levels and where 49.6 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. Moreover, poverty in Afghanistan is concentrated in rural areas and four out of five poor people live in poverty. The East, Northeast, and West-Central regions—where almost half of the inhabitants are poor—have the lowest per capita consumption and highest likelihood of poverty. In cognizance of the vitality of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and education is promulgated as the primary weapon against poverty prevalence. Hence it is crucial to seek out the effect of different levels of education on poverty in Afghanistan. This study evaluates the effect of different levels of education, experience, and gender of the employed individuals (employers, self-employed, wage earners, and unpaid family workers) as the determinants of poverty. The data is collected from the Living Conditions Survey for 2008 and 2019. A logistic regression model is estimated based on data, with the probability of an individual being poor as the dependent variable and a set of educational levels, experience, and gender as explanatory variables. Further, the study identifies deficiencies related to basic education in poverty reduction and comes up with some policy conclusions that can be taken into account in the planning of effective basic education for poverty reduction.