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Latest News and Research
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Exposure visit for the representatives of
NGOs in Afghanistan to India 1st
march to 13th March, 2008
Empowering
local capacity in post-conflict situations –
lessons from Afghanistan
Round
table meeting,
20th February 2008, London
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Police Reform in Afghanistan
There are serious concerns about the ability of the police to
protect the civilian population in Afghanistan. They are widely seen
as corrupt, ineffective and are being trained to take on
increasingly para-military functions related to stemming the
insurgency. Two key elements shape the way the police function;
political parties and control over resources – both economic and
political. These are also key drivers of conflict more broadly in
Afghanistan and in order to create a police force that is able to
perform its civilian protection role these issues must be addressed.
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 Conflict Mapping Exercise and Report
for Action Aid Afghanistan
The nature of conflict in Afghanistan is very complicated and
diverse. To investigate ways that NGOs can work on conflict in
Afghanistan ActionAid Afghanistan asked CPAU to carry out a
conflict mapping and analysis and develop a discussion paper. A
summary of the findings from the mapping, which includes an
assessment of conflict drivers in Afghanistan, can be accessed
from the link above.
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 Conflict Monitoring Report
To identify from existing CPAU documentation key themes
and elements of conflict in 6 districts for further analysis and
research development six volunteers identified in London will
carry out the analysis and write up the reports. They will be
managed by CPAU Europe in coordination with the research unit in
Kabul. During this exercise the team will produce a report on
each district outlining the major themes and elements of
conflict that is brought to the Peace Shuras.
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 New Research launched on Civil
Society-Government Dialogue for Policy Reform
Recently CPAU signed a contract with Counterpart International
to conduct a study on Civil Society-Government Dialogue for
Policy Reform. Based on this contract CPAU will conduct a
research and draft four case studies on Civil Society-Government
relations in Ministries of Information and Culture, public
Health and Justice as well as the Parliament.
The main objective of the research is to understand the ways in
which Afghan civil society impacts or have a potential to impact
policy formulation in Ministries and Parliament for betterment
of the Afghan people, and propose mechanisms that can be
developed to improve dialogue between civil society and
government bodies, as well as civil society and parliament. The
policies to be ponder upon and the filed study locations would
be determined later on.
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 Nawabi’s
speech in Oslo seminar on Afghanistan
On June 26, 2008 Peace Research
Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
and Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
organized a Governance and Legitimacy seminar on Afghanistan in
Oslo, Norway, which was attended by some Afghan and
international experts of Afghanistan. With
Astri Suhrke of CMI as a discussant,
the seminar was chaired by Kristian Berg Harpviken of PRIO.
Representing CPAU, the Managing Director Kanishka Nawabi
delivered a speech on
Law and Governance with a particular
reference on role of Religious Actors in Conflict
Resolution and Governance in afghan civil society. In his speech
Mr. Nawabi shed a light on the functions and significance of the
role that Religious leaders could potentially play in filling
governance gaps and conflict resolution in Afghanistan. The
complete text of Mr. Nawabi’s speech is available in this page
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 CPAU at
Paris Civil Society Moot
“Paris hosted the fourth Afghan civil society conference on 24th
May 2008. This was part of the discussions prior to major Donors
conference of 12th June in Paris to be co-hosted by President
Sarkozi, President Karzai and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. A
number of 250 Afghan delegates representing Civil Society and
Business Sector were invited to this conference along with a
number of delegates from the Afghan Government and international
community. This was an initiative by the French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner who also co-hosted the event. Through four main
roundtable meetings, the conference produced a Civil Society and
Business Sector statement to be presented in the upcoming 12th
June Donors Conference in Paris.”
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 Basic
Advocacy workshop for Counterpart International
On April 30 and May 1, 2008 CPAU held a two-day workshop for the
partners of Counterpart Intonation’s Initiative to Promote Afghan
Civil Society (I-PACS) in Kabul’s Intercontinental hotel. The
meeting was attended by ACSF and its partner organization. This week
again CPAU conducts a three-day Advocacy workshop for I-PACS
partners. The workshops were moderated by Program Director Mirwais
Wardak and CPAU’s capacity-building team.
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CPAU’s new
research engagement
CPAU will this month make four studies of Afghan madrasas
including data collection, analysis and writing up of a report
for International peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). This
assignment is part of a study entitled ‘Trans-border Relegious
Networks: The Case of Religious Education in Afghanistan and
Pakistan’. Please note that this research is in continuation of
CPAU’s last year’s research on the role and functions of
religious civil society in Afghanistan.
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 CPAU
at ACBAR’s Steering Committee
Mirwais Wardak CPAU’s
Program Director recently elected as a member of ACBAR’s steering
committee. ACBAR is an umbrella organization representing Afghan NGO
members from the national and international humanitarian,
reconstruction and development NGOs community in Afghanistan. ACBAR
was formed in 1988 in response to the need for NGOs to coordinate
their activities in order to maximize their efficiency and
resources. Earlier Engineer Sayed Jawed director of HAFO elected
Chair of the Steering Committee.
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 CPAU’s
Fight for Peace initiative
The
“Fight for Peace” is a
CPAU project trying to promote girls and women rights through
sports. It is part of the overall efforts by CPAU in community
Peacebuilding and developing a strong and inclusive civil society in
Afghanistan. Currently, the Fight for Peace is part of promoting
women boxing in Afghanistan through first ever Afghan Amateur Women
Boxing Association (AAWBA), financed and established by CPAU in
February 2007, under auspicious of Afghan Olympic Federation. This
program was well received by international media and became subject
to numerous reportages and documentaries by print and electronic
media.
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 CPAU
Europe’s Opening 2008
CPAU agreed in its current strategic plan to establish an office in
Europe in order to meet its strategic aims of having an impact on
policies relating to Afghanistan at an international level. CPAU’s
office in Europe was officially opened on 26th February
2008. The opening was well attended by old CPAU friends and
colleagues, as well as new contacts in the UK and five CPAU staff.
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CPAU’s Trocaire-funded Community
Peacebuilding Project inching towards its end
One of CPAU’s successful flagship community peacebuilding projects
funded by Trocaire is going to end by the end of current month.
Under this project that started in April 2006, CPAU focused on four
target areas working with 29 Peace and Development Committees
covering a population of approximately 361,100 people.
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 Inter-district
visit of CPAU Peace Shuras in Kundoz
This year the Peace Shuras form Malistan, Chak, Kundoz
and Baharak all met in Kundoz city. It is part of CPAU Peacebuilding
program to facilitate inter-district visits and bring people from
different parts of the country together to promote reconciliation
and coexistence in Afghanistan. These visits had an enormous impact
on rebuilding the broken relations between the various ethnic and
religious groups.
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 Christian
Dennys Joins CPAU as its European Representative
Christian Dennys recently joined CPAU as its Representative in
Europe. Before joining CPAU Christian worked as a policy adviser and
researcher with several organizations including Oxfam and Amnesty
International. Christian has been carrying out research and policy
work in Afghanistan for the last 5 years with a particular focus on
security sector reform. He is also fluent in Dari. The CPAU team
welcomes him onboard and wishes him every success.
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 CPAU
opening its Europe office
To meet its institutional strategic plan and individual project
plans as implemented by its Research Unit, CPAU decided this summer
to open an office in London. “CPAU Europe” would allow for the
better, more targeted delivery of CPAU’s research output, and
increase the potential for achieving policy change accordingly.
The
office will also be a good opportunity to improve donor relations,
investigate new funding streams as well as improving the quality of
CPAU’s research and production of publications. The CPAU Europe
office would be inaugurated in a formal ceremony later in the month
of February. It is envisaged that CPAU Europe could be fully
operational within the two month after its inauguration.
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 Research
report on Religious Civil Society in Afghanistan released
Religion is an influential force in Afghanistan. To explore
functions and perceptions of the religious civil society in the post
2001 situation, CPAU with collaboration with Internation Peace
Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
conducted a new research project whose findings were presented in
the form of a detailed report a few month back.
How does religious civil society perceive current process and what
role and function does religious civil society plays in Afghanistan,
were the main thematic questions of the research.
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 CPAU
Participates in CITpax moot in Madrid
In late 2007 a Spanish Think Thank CITpax organized a meeting
between Afghan Civil Society, PRT and International organizations
representatives for discussions on Evolution of PRT Models, with
question if it moves towards the pre-eminence of the civilian
dimension of aid.
CPAU was represented in the discussions by its Managing Director
Kanishka Nawabi. Other important Afghan participants of the meeting
were Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Ambassador Jawed Ludin, National
Security Advisor to the President Dr. Zalmay Rasoul, and Engineer
Aziz Rafie of ASCF.
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 The
three-year strategic plan of CPAU
On completion of its three-year strategic plan 2004-2007, on
December 16 and 17, 2007, CPAU held another strategic planning
session for the years 2008-2010 in Kabul. Facilitated by Elizabeth
Winter, Special Advisor to BAAG (the umbrella group of British and
Irish organizations working in Afghanistan), representatives of Asia
Foundation, ACBAR, CHA and NPO-RRAA also graced the occasion with
their presence.
According to Mirwais Wardak Program Director of CPAU, the strategic
document will help CPAU and its partners harness their efforts and
find new niches for future programs. He also said that the existing
inadequacies in security and political developments make it more
compelling to reconsider their role and take on more efficient ways
to respond to these and many unforeseen challenges of civil society
by adapting strategic course. The final document will be released
soon.
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 Analysis
of Asia Foundation’s Afghanistan Report 2007
In 2007, The Asia Foundation asked for cooperation of CPAU in
analysis of their 2007 nation wide survey of public opinion poll in
Afghanistan. This survey entails public opinion on political
process, government performance, and hopes/concerns for the future
across Afghanistan.
As part of this assignment, CPAU analyzed the data from the recently
conducted national survey on regional levels and also produce seven
regional reports which will be used by The Asia Foundation
internationally on important policy discourse and other issues on
Afghanistan. The report analyzed by CPAU is going to be published
soon. |
Christian
Dennys Joins CPAU as its European Representative
.JPG)
