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Samangan_Province_Reference_Map_DD_20140209FEB09_A0.pdfSamangan Provincial Profile
Samangan Provincial Profile
The Samangan Provincial Profile uses information and data from the Afghanistan Central Statistics Organization (CSO) Socio-Demographic and Economic Survey (SDES) and subsequent reports. The SDES was a survey conducted by the CSO with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) in Samangan in 2015.
The provincial information from the SDES was cross-referenced and compared with findings from Samuel Hall’s six provincial community profiles. The cross-reference helped consolidate and validate much of the initial data gathered in the Community Profiles and provided a provincial and district-level counterpoint to the community and household-level research conducted in the Community Profiles.
Provincial Overview
Samangan Province is located in the northern part of Afghanistan. It is bordered by Baghlan to the East, Bamyan to the South, Sar-e-Pul to the South-West, Balkh Province to the West and Kunduz to the North. It is well positioned on the main trade road between Mazar-e-Sharif and Pul-e-Khumri (in Baghlan), Salang and Kabul.
Samangan is situated at an elevation of 959 meters above sea level and covers an area of 13,438 km2. Its capital is Aybak and the remaining six districts are Hazrat-e-Sultan, Khuram Wa Sarbagh, Feroz Nakhcheer, Roi-Do-Ab, Dara-e-Soof-e-Payin, and Dara-e-Soof-e-Bala.
Four-fifths of the province is mountainous or semi mountainous terrain (80%) while a little more than one-tenth (12%) of the area is made up of flatland. The major crops grown in the province are wheat and an increasing area of land is cultivated with potatoes and vegetables such as water melons, onions, and tomatoes. Moreover, karakul sheep and goats are the dominant livestock raised by households. There is also a production of meat, dairy and wool while rug making is the famous handicraft.
Provincial Demographics
Samangan has a very young population with about 44% of its population age below 15 years at the time of the SDES survey. The median age of the population in Samangan is of 17.5 years, which is almost the same as the estimated national median age of 17 years.
At 32.6%, the literacy rate for 10 years old and over in Samangan Province was the second to lowest after Ghor when compared to other provinces where the SDES had been carried out. The literacy rate for males was 43.1%, which is two times compared to that for females. One of the communities in the Energy Study, Lab-e-Aab is in Feroz Nakchir which was the district with the highest literacy rates in Samangan (59.1%).
The numbers of people who had received no schooling also varied by district. Aybak had 65.1% of people who had no schooling, Feroz Nakchir 68.3%, but Hazrat-e-Sultan (where there are two Energy Study communities) had 87.3% of people in the SDES survey who had no schooling.
12.5% of the surveyed population were migrants (having resided in another district, province or country to the one they were currently in). Aybak district (with 3 Energy Study communities) recorded 17% of respondents as migrants, 9.9% in Feroz Nakchir and down to 7.4% in Hazrat-e-Sultan.
Samangan Province Economic Overview
The agricultural, forestry and fishery workers accounted for the highest proportion of workers in Samangan Province at 41.8%; 46.4% among males and 4.7% among females.
Elementary occupations composed the second highest proportion of workers at 22.7% and were again higher among males (25%) compared to females (3.8%). These include refuse workers, labourers in construction, manufacturing and transport, etc., agricultural, foresty and fishery labourers, street cleaners and helpers.
Among female workers, those who were engaged in craft and related trade workers such manufacturing workers comprised a very significant proportion at 65%. There was a lower proportion of this type of worker among males (6.2%).
In Feroz Nakhcheer District, workers in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing industry made up 63.3% of those who worked at any point during the previous year, while in Hazrat-e-Sultan it was just over half at 50.4%.
Provincial Energy Profile
In Samangan Province as a whole, 90.1% of households had some form of electricity in their houses.
Straw/shrub/grass was the most common source of energy for cooking with 36.1% of households surveyed in the SDES using it. Animal dung was used by 27.7% of households, coal/lignite by 13.6%, wood by 11.6%, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) by 6.8% of households and the remaining 4.2% used other types of fuel such as kerosene, charcoal, electricity, natural gas, biogas and agricultural crop residues for cooking. This correlated closely with the Community Profiles where animal dung and wood were widely cited.
Straw/shrub/grass was a popular fuel for cooking in Feroz Nakhcheer (72.7%). While not having a community that will appear in the Energy Study, Dara-e-Soof stands out with 64.7% percent of the households in the district using coal/lignite for cooking. Animal dung was mostly used in Hazrat-e-Sultan (45.6%), which correlates with the Community Profiles where animal waste was widely cited in Dawlatabad and Yakatoot as being used for cooking.
Animal dung/bushes was an important source of energy for heating in Samangan Province and was used for this purpose by one in every two households.
A marked majority of households used animal dung/bushes as fuel for heating in Hazrat-e-Sultan (90.4%) and Feroz Nakhcheer (71.6%). Wood was the most favoured source of heating fuel in Aybak District (where 3 communities feature in the Energy Study) used by 48.6% of households.
Solar power was the leading source of energy for lighting among households in Samangan Province. It was used by 60 percent of the total households, followed by electricity (30.0%) and gas/kerosene (8.7%). A small proportion of households reported other sources of energy for lighting (1.3%), for example, candles.
The split between districts closely matched the information gathered in the Community Profiles. Electricity from gridlines, generators or hydropower was the most common form of powering lighting in Aybak District (61.7%) and Feroz Nakcheer (42.6%). In contrast, the majority of households in Hazrat-e-Sultan (74%) used solar to power their lighting needs.
Household Assets
63% of households surveyed in the Samangan SDES had a mobile phone. This rose to 78.7% of households in Neroz Nakcheer having reported owning a mobile phone. Households ownership rates of television sets stood at 25.3 % and radios at 23.9%. Television set and radio ownership was highest in Aybak (54.5% and 36.8%, respectively)
Central Statistics Office (CSO) and UNFPA, Samangan Social-Economic and Demographic Profile, 2015, available at: http://cso.gov.af/Content/files/Samangan%20Report%20English%20V1_Reza_13Dec2015_webquality.pdf
All graph figures taken from the CSO/UNFP SDES
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