Self-Help Groups in Afghanistan: A Social Work, NGO and Volunteer Perspective on Collective Resilience under Constraint

Abstract

Self-help groups (SHGs)  small, voluntary, peer-governed associations that pool savings, knowledge, emotional support and collective action have become a prominent community-based strategy in development and humanitarian practice. In Afghanistan, where four decades of conflict, recurrent disasters, economic collapse and, since 2021, severe restrictions on women's education, employment and public participation have eroded formal welfare structures, SHGs and related savings and solidarity groups operate at the intersection of social work practice, non-governmental organisation (NGO) programming and volunteerism. This article presents a critical narrative review and conceptual analysis that integrates literature on mutual aid, empowerment, social capital, social development and humanitarian localization with Afghan-specific scholarship and programmed evidence. It makes three contributions. First, it maps the social work functions of SHGs across micro, mezzo and macro levels, including psychosocial support, group work, community organizing, protection and referral. Second, it analyses the NGO perspective, covering delivery models, donor dependency, accountability, Do No Harm obligations and negotiation of access under restrictive operating conditions. Third, it examines volunteers — peer facilitators, community mobilisers and religiously motivated helpers — as the human infrastructure of SHGs, together with the risks of exploitation, burnout and insecurity. The article proposes an integrative framework, the Ecological Solidarity–Support–Sustainability (ES3) model, and derives eight testable propositions for future empirical research. It concludes that SHGs are best understood not as a substitute for rights-based public services but as a context-sensitive platform for resilience, whose benefits depend on culturally grounded facilitation, professional supervision of volunteers, safeguarding, and donor flexibility.