Soodaba Afghan
Soodaba Afghan was born and raised in Afghanistan. In 2007 she received the esteemed ICCR Scholarship of India and completed her BA in the field of Political Economy. In 2010 she returned to Afghanistan and worked as Training Coordinator Specialist with Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC). In 2011, she received the DAAD Scholarship and completed her MA in field of Public Policy and Good Governance. From 2013-2015 worked as capacity building advisor with Independent Directorate for local Governance (IDLG) in Afghanistan. From year 2015-2017 worked as Administrative Reform Advisor with the Office of President’s Special Representative for Reform (OPSR). From 2019-2010 based on presidential degree she worked as Director of Export Promotion with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC).
Besides working with the government of Afghanistan, she is also one a women entrepreneur, and started her own business in the name of Atrang Cloth Production Company in 2019 which is the first women SME that produced and distributed casual wear clothes for women.
After the market assessment, she found women SMEs need a permanent Market to sell their product therefore, in year 2020 she came up with idea to establish a permanent Market and Exhibition Center in heart of Kabul for 300 women SMEs from all over the country. She lobbied with the Office the president, MOIC, MoI and DAB to implement the idea and succeeded. This complex was above to be inaugurated in August 25th 2021 but unfortunately the country collapsed on 18th 2021 and everything got vanished.