Impact of COVID-19 on Women-Led SMEs in Kabul: Linking and Understanding their Role in Trade and Empowerment

Parisa Sabar and Mohammad Mirwais Rasa

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone and key drivers of economy and economic growth in each country. In developing countries like Afghanistan, SMEs are a good source of income generation and employment, and they are considered the heart of private sectors. After the outbreak December 2019 in Wuhan China, in early 2020 the World Health Organization identified a new virus called coronavirus disease or COVID-19. In order to cope with and prevent effectively from the spread of the COVID-19 virus, different countries around the world responded in several ways to this pandemic. Majority of the countries decided to handle the situation with social distancing and lockdowns that affected the flows of trade and economic situation widely. Travel restrictions were put in place by some countries. At the end of March 2020, the Afghan cabinet decided to impose a lockdown in Kabul city for three weeks. All the hotels, sauna, shrines, cafes, restaurants, gyms, parks, public bathing centers and other stores remained closed for 3 weeks. As the situation continued, the quarantine also got extended for longer. The study’s objective was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Afghan women-led SMEs in Kabul city and to investigate the alternative ways that would help Afghan Women-Led SMEs to continue their business during such crisis and the way it contribute to their growth and creativity. Quantitative research design was adopted for this study. The study used a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was women engaged in SMEs in Kabul city. Sample size for the study was 285 women SME considering Kris Morgan sample size table, out of which 122 respondents have answered the questionnaire. Questionnaire was designed in Google form as well as in word document. The study used descriptive statistics to analyze data, through SPSS version 24 computer software. To find out the relationship between variables, ANOVA and regression analysis were computed. The finding of the study shows that there is a significant relationship between the impact of COVID-19 and the performance of women led SMEs.

Keywords: Impact; Women-Led SMEs; COVID-19; Entrepreneurship; Trade; Empowerment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J2 J24 L2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04-09, Revised 2024-10-08
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/122581/1/MPRA_paper_122511.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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