Responding to Needs in a Taliban-Controlled State: From Humanitarian Relief Towa

This panel will take us back to the early autumn of 2021 and examine how the international donor community responded to the Taliban takeover, and how assistance was rapidly scaled up to prevent the worst scenario of a humanitarian disaster.

We will also look at the experiences of national and international NGOs who continued working in the rural communities, supporting basic services of health, education, and food security at a time where the international funding of the public sector in Afghanistan were cut off. How has the aid architecture developed over this last year and what opportunities, hurdles and gaps can be identified in moving from humanitarian response to sustainable development?

Chair: Karim Merchant

Panellists: Horia Mosadiq, Roxanne Sharpour, Terje Watterdal and Arne Strand