Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world with an estimated per capita income of 300 US dollars and average mortality age of 47 years. By all accounts, progress to date for moving Afghanistan out of poverty and on to a path of economic and socio-political recovery has been arduous and slow. In recent years government and donor supported programmes and policies have increasingly been concerned about the development of the private sector and tapping into Afghanistan's pool of entrepreneurial capacity. It is not clear, however, how best to proceed since there continues to be a lack of reliable empirical evidence (and analysis) on the current state of entrepreneurship in Afghanistan. In this article we summarize the results of a recent study that aimed to assess the impact of conflict on entrepreneurial activity in Afghanistan, and explore the household and environmental factors that are related to entrepreneurial choice. The study used the National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) of Afghanistan households carried out in 2005. The results were presented at the UNU-WIDER workshop on Conflict and Entrepreneurship held in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in March 2009.