“Life for the average Afghan remains short, miserable, and brutal. Average lifespan for men and women hovers at around 45 years. According to the United Nations, nearly a third of all Afghans, some 6.5 million people, suffer from chronic food insecurity. Afghans face escalating violations of their human rights at the hands of a variety of abusers: the Taliban and other anti-government insurgent groups, including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami and tribal militias, criminal groups and loc more...

'Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) is a non-partisan Network of women and women’s NGOs working to empower Afghan women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan society. The members of the Network also recognize the value and role of children as the future of Afghanistan and, as such, regard the empowerment and protection of children as fundamental to their work. The Network seeks to enhance the effectiveness of its members by fostering partnership and collaboration between members, undertak more...

Sobbing and barely abe to speake, a teenage girl from Afghanistan's northern Takhar province describles the horror of being gang-rapped at gunpoint.

'They raped me for three days and nights. I felt like I was going crazy', she said. 'They forced me to drink alcohol. I couldn't get up. They had guns, knives. They were so cruel and brutal. I screamed and cried, but they didn't care'.

When U.S. or NATO soldiers need to communicate with Afghan villagers, they rely on translators provided by private contractors. But for various reasons, translators in Afghanistan often don't relate everything they hear. And what is lost in translation can hurt efforts by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. In the worst cases, innocent civilians can be arrested or wrongly targeted.

The Common Country Assessment report is based on reviews and analyses Afghanistan’s development situation where United Nations System have the greatest impact between 2006-2009 toward the overall goal of poverty reduction. In identifying development challenges requiring priority attention during its harmonized programme cycles, the United Nations System and its partners clustered themes for analysis into four closely interrelated groups: Governance and Institutional Development: Peace, Securi more...

Country programme Action Plan agreement signed by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Full document in pdf format: pages 1-26

The Government of Afghanistan endorsed the Millennium Declaration as well as the MDGs only in March 2004. Afghanistan, however, having lost over two decades to war, has had to modify the global timetable and benchmarks to fit local realities. The rest of the international community defined the MDGs, to be attained by 2015, against a baseline of 1990. Because of its lost decades and the lack of available information, Afghanistan has defined its MDG contribution as targets for 2020 from baselines more...

KAIPTC has become West Africa's Operational Level Focus for Conflict Prevention and Peace Studies. Delivering courses to military and civilian personnel involved in Peace Support Operations throughout the world, it will lead original and challenging research into the causes and subsequent management of conflict and the promotion of peace.

'This paper outlines urgent action necessary to address immediate challenges in Afghanistan and to avert humanitarian disaster. It does not seek to address all issues of concern but focuses on essential policy change in development and humanitarian spheres.

While aid has contributed to progress in Afghanistan, especially in social and economic infrastructure – and whilst more aid is needed – the development process has to date been too centralised, top-heavy and insufficient.'

'Increasing insecurity and criminality is jeopardising progress in Afghanistan. With low government revenues, international assistance constitutes around 90% of all public expenditure in the country, thus how it is spent has an enormous impact on the lives of almost all Afghans and will determine the success of reconstruction and development. Given the links between development and security, the effectiveness of aid also has a major impact on peace and stability in the country. Yet thus far aid more...