Development

  • Life and Death: NGO access to financial services in Afghanistan - NRC Report

    "Afghanistan faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Transferring funds into Afghanistan has become a major challenge for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) since the Taliban’s return to power on 15 August 2021." - NRC, 27th January 2022"The report finds:The ability of humanitarians to respond to the crisis is hampered by the fact that Western governments and financial institutions are making it impossible to transfer and withdraw sufficient funds into and across the country.Lack of clear guidance to international banks regarding what is permissible under sanctions means bank de-risking of NGO financial transactions is widespread.When NGOs are able to make transfers, the suspension of the Central Bank means domestic banks in Afghanistan don’t have enough bank notes in the country to allow NGOS to withdraw sufficient cash from our accounts.Public and private banks in country risk collapse, facing major challenges regarding access to physical bank notes, with withdrawal limits complication matters further for NGOs."Executive Summary: https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/reports/life-and-death/life-and-death-executive-summary.pdfFull Report: https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/reports/life-and-death/life-and-death.pdf

    Life and Death: NGO access to financial services in Afghanistan
  • Afghanistan Update; United Kingdom

    Dear Colleagues, The developments in Afghanistan over the last few weeks have been extremely difficult to witness. We know many of you, like thousands of people around the country, have been closely involved in working to make Afghanistan a better place over the last two decades and have a deep connection with the country and its people. Yesterday’s callous attacks on innocent people outside Kabul airport brought into stark relief the fragility of the situation in Afghanistan. It was also a terrible reminder of the challenges we face both in getting people to safety now and supporting the country in the long-term. Our thoughts are with the families of all those who lost their lives, including several US service personnel and many Afghan civilians. As you know, in line with US military deadlines and our operational objectives, the UK evacuation effort at Kabul airport, Operation PITTING is concluding. We wanted to update you on the end of our current process and what follows next, including the return of nearly 1,000 HMG personnel over the coming days. We have worked at unprecedented pace to facilitate the largest and most complex evacuation in living memory. The Armed Forces, MoD, FCDO and Home Office staff have worked incredibly hard in very difficult circumstances to bring out over 13,000 people over the last two weeks. This number includes British nationals and their dependants, Afghans who worked for the UK government and military and their dependants, and other Afghans who are at particularly high risk. We have also supported our allies and partners to help their nationals to safety wherever possible. This has only been possible thanks to the extraordinary efforts of UK troops and government officials on the ground, who put themselves in harm’s way and worked around the clock to evacuate as many people as possible. We are grateful for all your efforts to direct those in need of support towards assistance. Our consular teams have been able to reach many in need thanks to your help. A whole of government effort will support and integrate our Afghan friends into UK society through this traumatic period...PLEASE CLICK ON THE ATTACHED DOCUMENT TO READ THE FULL STATEMENT.

    PDF icon 20210827 Afghanistan Update Dear Colleague letter.pdf
  • Position Paper on Inclusion of People with Disabilities Geneva Conference on Afghanistan (GCA)

    Joint position paper on disability for the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan

    PDF icon GCA Position Paper People with Disabilities Final 2018.pdf
  • Building Resilience in Afghanistan

    PDF icon Building Resilience in Afghanistan_Geneva Conference position paper.pdf
  • Child marriage in Afghanistan: changing the narrative

    The primary objective of this report, prepared on behalf of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and the Disabled (MoLSAMD) in collaboration with UNICEF Afghanistan, is to provide contextualised analysis on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of communities in order to inform the development of future programming to either mitigate the impacts of child marriage or prevent further engagement in child marriage across Afghanistan.

    PDF icon UNICEF-MoLSAMD-afg-report-Child-Marriage-in-Afghanistan.pdf
  • Life under the Taliban shadow government

    Based on first-hand interviews with more than 160 Taliban fighters and officials as well as civilians, this paper examines how the Taliban govern the lives of the tens of millions of Afghans living under their rule.

    PDF icon 12269.pdf
  • Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey

    This report provides details of the sixth round of data collection since the start of this survey in 2003. 

    PDF icon Final English ALCS Highlight(1).pdf
  • World Bank: Afghanistan Development Update

    Afghanistan’s security environment is continuing to deteriorate. The increased conflict appears to be holding back business and consumer confidence from recovering fully from the impact of the security transition in 2014. The annual economic growth rate is projected to reach 2.6 percent in 2017, increasing very slightly from the figure of 2.2 percent recorded in 2016. Industry is projected to grow by two percent, while services is projected to grow at 3.3 percent. Following a substantial increase last year (six percent), growth in agricultural output is expected to decelerate significantly to around 1.5 percent.

    PDF icon 121392-WP-P165541-PUBLIC-November-20-12-AM.pdf
  • State of the world’s emergencies: A briefing for UK parliamentarians, October 2017

    This briefing has been put together by a significant number of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) under the leadership of Bond’s Humanitarian and Conflict Policy groups. These NGOs are either actively operational in these contexts or working to raise awareness in the UK of the challenges faced by people experiencing humanitarian disasters, conflict and upheaval. Afghanistan is featured in a section of this report where it describes its fragility and its need for continuos international support. 

    PDF icon bond_state_of_the_worlds_emergencies_2017.pdf
  • AREU: Judicial Review in Afghanistan: A Flawed Practice, August 2017

    This report explores judicial review in Afghanistan. Judicial review is an important practice where a court or a similar institution reviews and decides on the constitutionality of laws and public acts.  Constitutional review was embraced by Afghanistan’s post-conflict Constitution of 2004, and the Supreme Court and the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution (ICOIC) were empowered to ensure the constitutionality of legislation and public actions respectively. In Afghanistan, judicial review has remained broad and imprecise in the text of the constitution, it also proved a difficult practice to institutionalise, as neither institution granted these new powers had ever exercised judicial review. A number of case studies demonstrate the Supreme Court’s inconsistency while conducting judicial review.

    PDF icon AREU__Judicial-Review-in-Afghanistan__English_Print_covers.pdf
  • AREU: Evolution of the Executive Branch in Afghanistan: A Look Back and Recommendations on the Way Forward, August 2017

    The findings of this report illustrate that legitimate change in the political system of Afghanistan will require an amended Constitution. The authority to amend the Constitution of Afghanistan has been given to the Loya Jirga in the Constitution. The majority of experts interviewed recognized that in the present situation, there are significant obstacles to convening a Loya Jirga. As a legal matter, it is unlikely that a Loya Jirga could be convened under the Constitution, because firstly Afghanistan has not held District Council elections; and secondly as some of the Experts point out, the legitimacy of the current Parliament is also in question. All but one of the Experts also considered the social, political and security obstacles to convening a Loya Jirga. In particular, some Experts fear that ethnic issues may predominate, leading to the Loya Jirga spending more time debating identity and language issues than it would addressing the structure of the government.

    PDF icon AREU__Executive-Review-in-Afghanistan__English_print_covers.pdf
  • DFID Afghanistan Profile: July 2017

    This report is a profile created by DFID on Afghanistan. It explores issues such as why DFID has invested in Afghanistan, what the aid expects to achieve looking ahead, and other relavant issues pertainig to DFID's work in Afghanistan.

    PDF icon Policy paper-DFID Afghanistan Profile-July 2017.pdf
  • Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) Study Report

    This report is by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) which has released the findings of an in‐depth Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) study designed to assist policymakers in promoting policies based on evidence‐based research and address some of Afghanistan’s most pressing land ownership issues.  

    PDF icon Land-Governance-Assessment-Framework-LGAF-Afghanistan.pdf
  • Aid in a Conflict Zone: Can military and development objectives work together?

    This report presents the main points raised in a panel discussion which examined devolopment cooperation and civil-military relations in Afghanistan. 

    PDF icon BAAG_ConflictZone_Final.pdf
  • Understanding the impact of illicit economies in Afghanistan's Development

    A summary report of the APPG Afghanistan briefing and discussion on the role illicit economies play in Afghanistan's development. Core themes include the drug economy, mining, and migration.

    PDF icon BAAG_IllicitEconom_Final.pdf

Pages