Groupe URD in Afghanistan
We have been following the situation in Afghanistan since Groupe URD was created in 1993. We carried out our first evaluations there in 1998 and increased our activities as of 2001. Changes in practice which have taken place in Afghanistan have prefigured changes throughout the entire humanitarian and reconstruction sector.
From early 2002, we conducted a large number of field visits and between January 2005 and August 2008, we had a regional office in Kabul from which we conducted research, evaluations and training and where we set up our first observatory of humanitarian practice.
Since 2009, Groupe URD regularly conducts training courses for Afghan employees working with French NGOs in Afghanistan. (see below)
Support was provided to local and international organisations in the form of multi-sector research projects, programme evaluations and training sessions.
Afghanistan is an example of a protracted, complex and sensitive context. It includes a combination of emergency, reconstruction and development situations which varies depending on the region and the period. The simultaneous presence of different actors such as humanitarian agencies, military forces, businesses and private security agencies, who have different mandates and methods of working, has raised a number of important operational, ethical and structural issues.
In 2008, we were forced to close the kabul office in Afghanistan due to lack of funding. However, we have not closed the door definitively on this country which, over and above its interest in terms of analysis of humanitarian practice, remains very dear to us. We continue to provide training on a regular basis, and, when there is demand, we will carry out evaluations and provide methodological support to agencies.
Four major multi-sector projects involving a variety of activities were carried out between 2002 and 2008:
- Activities in connection with the Quality Project, 2002 - 2004 (see in "read more");
- The LRRD project (Linking relief, rehabilitation and development), 2005 - 2007;
- The Kaifiat project: strengthening humanitarian actors’ analytical and operational capacities, March 2007 - March 2008;
- The PMIS project (Participatory Management of Irrigated Systems), a study of social water management in Afghanistan, 2005-2008.
In 2010, Groupe URD conducted a Critical analysis of strategies to counter Afghan opiate production, for the French Development Agency, which aims to analyse the different strategies which have been put in place in the last ten years to counter Afghan opiate production, their outputs and the lessons learned.
NEWS 2010 / 2011:
Training course for Afghan employees working with French NGOs in Afghanistan
For more information about our training courses in Afghanistan, contact Anna Lear
For more information about the Afghanistan observatory, contact François Grünewald
For information about all of Groupe URD’s activities in Afghanistan to date, visit the page "South Asia" in the “geographical area” section.
