Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Corruption

Corruption

Afghanistan’s War Economy

Thomas Ruttig •

Maldekstra, 22 September 2022 This article was contributed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig to a special issue of the international affairs journal Maldekstra (no 16, September 2022), published by German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, titled “Economy in War.” His contribution looks at the two categories of profiteurs from the last Afghan war, the international military-industrial complex and […]

External publications Read more

Realpolitik and the 2021 National Budget: The toxic struggle for money and power that undermined Afghanistan’s Republic

Roxanna Shapour •

The 2021 new year did not get off to a promising start in Afghanistan. The conflict was raging, violence was at an all-time high for winter and the so-called peace talks were hobbling along in Doha. In what turned out to be the waning months of the Republic, lawmakers and government were deep in the […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Khalid Payenda Interview (2): Reforms, regrets and the final bid to save a collapsing Republic

Kate Clark • Roxanna Shapour •

In this second part of this interview, former Minister of Finance Khalid Payenda talks to AAN’s Kate Clark and Roxanna Shapour about the reaction of the Republic’s leadership to his plans to get the economy back on track and fight corruption and whether it was already too late to effect meaningful change. He gives a […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Khalid Payenda Interview (1): An insider’s view of politicking, graft and the fall of the Republic

Kate Clark • Roxanna Shapour •

What was it like to be a reformer at the heart of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan? The Republic’s last finance minister, Khalid Payenda, has given AAN an insider’s perspective. It is a sobering account of the obstacles that prevented him and other reformers ending government corruption and holding wrongdoers to account. Payenda discussed with […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Janus-Faced Pledges: A review of the 2020 Geneva donor conference on Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

The 2020 Afghanistan Conference in Geneva (which took place virtually) has produced pledges of 12 to 13 billion US dollars for the period 2021-24. The result represents a drop of up to 20 per cent compared to the 15.2 billion pledged four years ago in Brussels for 2017-20 and significantly below UNDP projections for the […]

International Engagement Read more

UNAMA’s New Report on Anti-corruption: More backsliding from government and growing frustration from donors

Jelena Bjelica •

The annual UNAMA anti-corruption report released today shows that the institutional fight against graft in Afghanistan between January 2019 and April 2020 has stalled in many areas. While the report acknowledges that the reform agenda has been overshadowed by the presidential elections and the pandemic, it does not hold back from pointing to failures in […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Afghanistan’s Anti-Corruption Institutions: Too many, and with too few results

Jelena Bjelica •

Corruption in the Afghan state has blossomed and bloomed in the years since 2001. A report published by UNAMA today on Afghanistan’s fight against corruption highlights how the frequent changes in corruption-related legislation and a mushrooming of anti-graft institutions have done little to stop it; recent reductions in petty corruption – as shown by the […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Graft and Remilitarisation: A look back at efforts to disarm, demobilise, reconcile and reintegrate

Kate Clark •

Even before the Eid truce suddenly made a peace process in Afghanistan imaginable, international civilian and military circles were wondering what they could do to support one. The government, the High Peace Council (HPC) and donors are also currently negotiating future funding for the HPC. It seems a good moment, says AAN’s Kate Clark, to […]

War and Peace Read more
For the first time, an MP has accused a fellow MP of corruption. The case eventually went to the Attorney General, but only after the vast majority of other MPs voted to give the accused immunity from prosecution. Photo: Pajhwok archive photo.

Lost in Procedure: How a corruption case in the Afghan parliament was (not) dealt with

Jelena Bjelica • Rohullah Sorush •

The lower house of the Afghan Parliament – the Wolesi Jirga – has a long-standing and unflattering reputation for corruption, which ranges from members of parliament receiving bribes for votes of confidence to arranging lucrative contracts. The latest allegation, however, was the first time that an MP had accused a fellow MP of corruption. This […]

Political Landscape Read more
An improvised cave school on the outskirts of Bamyan city, for the IDP children from Maidan Wardak who in prolonged displacement in Bamyan. Photo: Jelena Bjelica, May 2016.

Education, an Ideal Corrupted: An assessment of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education

Jelena Bjelica •

The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC), an independent anti-corruption body in Afghanistan, recently released its ‘vulnerability to corruption’ assessment of the Ministry of Education. The assessment points to 36 different types of corruption within the education sector, highlighting that corruption has become endemic in the last 10 to 15 years and that malpractice is systemic […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
Silhouettes of armed men against a darkening sky

Reforming the Afghan Ministry of Interior: A way to ‘tilt’ the war?

Kate Clark •

As part of their review of military strategy in Afghanistan, both President Ashraf Ghani and the Commander of United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, have honed in on the Ministry of Interior as a critical weakness in the government’s fight against the Taleban. The Afghan National Police, a paramilitary force, is […]

War and Peace Read more
Darb-e Khosh (Happy Gate), a historical gate to Herat city, being rebuilt as part of the young mayor's campaign for urban development. Photo: Said Reza Kazemi

The Battle between Law and Force: Scattered political power and deteriorating security test Herat’s dynamism

S Reza Kazemi •

Herat – the affluent and vibrant city in western Afghanistan – is going through a ‘scattering’ of political power and a deterioration in security. While Ismail Khan, the self-styled ‘amir of the west’, is still the preeminent figure, political power is no longer concentrated only in his hands, and the new actors are behaving differently […]

Political Landscape Read more

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