PeaceRep’s Afghanistan programme brings together a network of diverse Afghan experts and activists in exile with select non-Afghan experts and academics in order to develop policy-relevant research and reflections that can respond to the complex and interlocking crises emerging in Afghanistan today. The aim of this programme is threefold: to support the work and expertise of Afghan researchers who recently fled Afghanistan; to ensure that they are able to provide their expertise and analysis to inform contextually-appropriate international policies and practices on Afghanistan; and to deepen understanding of evolving political, security and economic dynamics. A key element of this project is to also gain insights on how to conduct research in fragmented and politically-constrained environments, such as Afghanistan.
The Taliban military takeover in August 2021 created unprecedented humanitarian and human rights challenges for the Afghan people with profound implications for the security, economic, and (geo-) political landscape in the region and beyond. Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world which has banned women and girls from accessing education and employment, with significant consequences for human rights, security and the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance. International decisions, actions, and policies in the short- and medium-term to address these interlocking crises will also shape future pathways for promoting a stable and pluralistic Afghanistan. How humanitarian, security and political policies interact needs to be considered. This network aims to respond to the high-risk of a protracted political, security, human rights and economics crisis facing Afghanistan today.
The Conflict and Civicness unit at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ IDEAS, in collaboration with the Civic Engagement Project (CEP) is establishing an Afghanistan Research Network that brings together Afghan experts and activists from a diverse range of backgrounds. A key element of this project is to centre the academic and expert capability of Afghans who have been on the frontlines of the complex challenges Afghanistan is grappling with today.
This project was launched in September 2022.
The Programme
The network brings together Afghan experts and activists from a range of backgrounds to establish an agile research network where different types of research and expertise can speak to each other and feed into UK and international policy making. This research network will review and assess comparative learning on Afghanistan with a focus on producing policy-relevant research while also preserving expertise, strengthening civicness, and identifying constructive steps for supporting the Afghan people and future pathways for stability. Some of the key issue areas being explored include: the effectiveness of humanitarian aid, gender apartheid and human rights documentation, peace process design and dialogues, narratives and conflict, civil society and diaspora engagement, and navigating aid and development in a politically-constrained environment.
The Project
Afghanistan will remain a politically complex and repressive context for the foreseeable future, in which regular international cooperation cannot take place in the absence of a legitimate government and increasing gender crimes. This project responds to the following factors – which taken together create a high risk for a protracted political, security, human rights crisis and economic crisis -, including:
- The exodus of Afghan activists, researchers, civil servants and experts (with many others in hiding or seeking to leave Afghanistan) has created a huge loss of knowledge and expertise as deepening security and humanitarian crisis has forced many Afghans to flee;
- A political crisis in which an exclusionary de facto Taliban government is focused on maintaining internal cohesion of the Taliban movement and consolidating authoritarian power rather than responding to the needs of the Afghan people;
- Accelerating humanitarian crises compounded by extreme drought, an economic crisis, pauses on aid, COVID-19, severe gender discrimination and large-scale displacement;
- Repression, serious human rights violations, and gender-based violence, including the severe restriction of women’s rights (with girls being banned from secondary school and women barred from most employment), freedom of assembly, and freedom of information. There are verified reports of grave human rights abuses, disappearances, seizures of property, raids on the homes of journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, and extra-judicial killings of former government and security officials by members of the Taliban.
- Deteriorating security environment, with reports of an increase in terrorist activity and border attacks combined with tensions within the Taliban's internal dynamics, factionalism and shifts in power structures;
- Significant challenges in gathering credible data in fragmented and politically difficult environments like Afghanistan where information is siloed, partial, and politically biased.
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