NORAD Review Afghanistan

This report reviews the policies, programmes and projects of two Norwegian NGOs in Afghanistan, the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), during the difficult transitional period 2000–04.

The report is based on a desk review, interviews and field visits. Divided into four sections the report gives a general background to the Afghan context and a short organisational profile of NCA and the NAC. In addition it provides recommendations and details lessons learned and conclusions to be drawn from the Afgan experience.

The reports findings include:

• small changes took place between 2001 and 2004 which in part explains for the slow state building process
• policy change takes time and will only pick up once the political situation has stabilised enough to make programme changes feasible. If policy changes are required during post-war transition, they need to be supported by strong economic incentives
• there has been a strong emphasis on reconstruction and development by Norwegian agencies, indicating that there are a number of organisational, staff and project level constraints that make organisations continue with established programmes even after the conditions that gave rise to them have changed
• for weak states such as Afghanistan with a rudimentary planning and implementation capacity, government service delivery and planning capacity must be built alongside the active participation of the NGO sector