Abdul Bashir Shor is Head of rural development programs for Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), and has been working in quality education, dialogue and conflict transformation, disaster risk reduction and food security in rural and hard to reach communities with children (girls, boys) women, men, religious elders and leaders, teachers in Afghanistan for more than 9 years. He has courses in Orientation and mobility for visually impaired people from German Jordanian University and Program Cycle Management from Ruhr university Bochum Germany in cooperation with APPRO in Afghanistan. He is currently in his last year of studies in Law and Political Science.

Abdul Ghafar Rahmati is the Head of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee’s Regional Office in Ghazni City. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Pune University, India, and is currently, studying for an MBA at MDU University, India.

Arne Strand has a PhD in Post-war Recovery Studies through which he studied coordination of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies. His research focuses on aid coordination, forced migration and reintegration, peace building and security sector reform and humanitarian and development assistance.

Strand has been team leader of several evaluations and research programmes in and on Afghanistan. He has extensive management experience from NGOs and research institutes, and has also been involved in developing management and professional capacities of Afghan NGOs and peacebuilding organisations.

Ashley Jackson is the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the Overseas Development Institute. She has over a decade of experience working on the ground in conflicts and crises, and she has published widely on humanitarian negotiations and armed groups. She has worked extensively in and on Afghanistan, and on engagement with the Taliban. Prior to her research and academic career, she worked as an aid worker and diplomat with Oxfam, the Red Cross, and the UN in Afghanistan, Indonesia and elsewhere. She holds an MA from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

Emerita Astri Suhrke is a political scientist focusing on the social, political, and humanitarian consequences of violent conflict, and strategies of response. She has for worked for decades on strategies of post-war reconstruction and state building, with particular focus on Afghanistan. Her most recent book is When More is Less: The International Project in Afghanistan (2011).

Aziz Rafiee is the Executive Director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum, and has contributed to civil society development in Afghanistan through more than 23 years of active work and engagement. He has worked with a wide range of civil society stakeholders including social, human rights and cultural organizations as well as NGOs and associations. He has been the founding member of more than 12 civil society organizations who are contributing to Afghanistan’s democratic development processes.