Study title

Afghanistan

Individual

Interviews used a structured questionnaire form and were carried out by researchers of the Organization for Sustainable Development and Research (OSDR). Interviews were held with all respondents while they were at work, since holding interviews in the household compound can become subject to interruptions. Research sites were selected based on (i) the major official and unofficial border crossings in Nangarhar and Nimroz; (ii) the primary points of production for each of the commodities being studied that originated inAfghanistan; and (iii) the location of any wholesale markets, with the objective of mapping the supply chains for each commodity. Then imagery analysis was conducted to assess the current activity of trade in each site, and where possible to trace supply chains back to further locations that might be of interest. The focus of data collection was on people involved in the day-to-day activities of extraction, transport and trade of each of the commodities being studied and in each of the research site identified, therefore interviewing traders, transporters and border control officials. To circumvent the inherent problems associated with researching an illegal or underground activity, the data collection focused on household livelihood strategies: how these individuals earned a living and how the circumstances that shaped it had changed over time and why. Discussions with respondents focused on their direct experience rather than on events or phenomena over a wider geographic area, where answers become increasingly speculative. Also key informants were interviewed, being individuals who had lived in a particular research site for an extended period of time and had intimate knowledge of the history, political-economy and events that shaped that location. Due to problems of access and the male composition of the research team, all respondents were male. Preference was given to key informants of 60-70 years of age, as most recollect back to the time of King Mohammed Zahir Shah in the 1950s and 1960s.For the four categories of interviewees ‒ key informants, traders, transporters and officials ‒ a separate question list was developed, and therefore separate data files exist.