'Afghanistan has achieved a great deal over the past six years. Even with modest capacity, strong leadership in the ministries of Public Health, Education, and Rural Rehabilitation and Development has begun transforming the country. The Health Ministry, outsourcing through nongovernmental organizations, is supplying basic services and has cut mortality for young children by 26 percent. It is saving 80,000 lives a year. New schools offer classes for 6 million students, the highest level ever, and more...

Afghanistan had some of the worst health indicators in the world. Today, despite continuing instability, health outcomes are vastly improved. The 2006 household survey indicates a 26% decline in under-five mortality since 2001. This translates into more than 80,000 lives being saved every year. Currently 82% of the entire Afghan population lives in districts where primary health care services are provided by NGOs.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Kabul University (KU) entered into partnership in late 2005 to establish the Center for Policy and Human Development (CPHD). The first Afghan policy research institution of its kind, CPHD has become the focal point of human development and policy research, teaching, and advocacy in the country.
The CPHD based at Kabul University campus, provided a welcoming institutional home. A modern facility with a Human Development Resource Center accessi more...

The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) is an Afghan women’s non-governmental organization (NGO) which was founded in 1995 by Professor Sakena Yacoobi to help address the problem of poor access for women and children to education and health services, their subsequent inability to support their lives, and the impact of this lack of education and health on Afghan society. AIL is an organization, run by Afghan women, that plays a major part in reconstructing education and health systems capable more...

I am often asked why I do the kind of work I do with the Afghan Institute of Learning. Each time the question is posed, I am reminded of the children in Peshawar when they first come to school. In their eyes, I see fear, sadness and hopelessness. But in just a few weeks, the same children are standing taller, laughing and playing with smiles across their faces. And I answer the question with this: when you make education available to Afghan children, it is like giving them a new life and hope more...

The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is an independent research organisation based in Kabul. AREU's mission is to conduct high-quality research that informs and influences policy and practice. AREU also actively promotes a culture of research and learning by strengthening analytical capacity in Afghanistan and facilitating reflection and debate. Fundamental to AREU’s vision is that its work should improve Afghan lives.

"Improved job opportunities, housing, and access to safe drinking water were listed as the top priorities for the future by the majority of former refugees and former internally displaced people in a survey into social and economic conditions in Afghanistan published on May 2006.

"This paper reports on a qualitative study of a sample of NGO programs and to
comment on lessons learned from USAID "REACH"’s experience with incorporating women in
health shuras.
The objectives of this study were to better understand:
• The effect on health care and health promotion of having female shura members
in the community,
• The different ways in which women participate in shuras and how they relate to
male shura members, and
• The factors that determine the formation of more...

The mission of the Afghanistan World Foundation (AWF) is to provide multi-level broad-based support to both the scale and scope of the Reconstruction and Development of Afghanistan, pursuant to the Afghan National Development Framework (NDF) mandate. Although there are over 20 defined sectors of reconstruction, AWF action programs are based on high priority survival needs in Afghanistan such as education and emergency health services. In May of 2002, in the wake of the U.S. led coalition respons more...

Oxfam has launched a £1m appeal to continue and expand its work with partners in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel and beyond over the next three months to provide clean water, sanitation and public hygiene promotion to innocent people affected by the fighting.