Understanding conflict and compromise
Explore the complexities of navigating conflict and compromise within community-driven development and foreign aid in Afghanistan through the lens of ngo national workers. Discover the critical role of 'jor aamad' in bridging the gap between international mandates and local realities. This research offers insights relevant to other conflict-affected regions and challenges conventional development approaches.
Navigating Conflict and Compromise: The Role of NGOs’ National Workers in the Implementation of Community-Driven Development and National Solidarity Programme through foreign aid in Afghanistan (2001–2021, and post-Taliban return)
This thesis examines the lived experiences of non-governmental organisations (ngos) national workers, primarily focusing on the national solidarity programme (nsp)—afghanistan's flagship community-driven development (cdd) initiative (2002–2016)—while also drawing on broader development interventions (2001–2021 and post-taliban return). grounded in extensive qualitative interviews (approx. 50), conducted both online and in-person (predominantly in istanbul) following the 2021 collapse, with a diverse group of stakeholders, including afghan men and women, former government officials, and international advisors, the study provides rich empirical data. crucially, the methodology relied on the researcher's insider positionality (as a former afghan ngo worker and refugee) and the leveraging of pre-existing professional and social networks (andiwaali/rafaqat) to foster the trust necessary to gather sensitive, on-the-ground insights. this unique approach reveals how ngos’ afghan workers confronted political instability, security threats, bureaucratic hurdles, and taliban-imposed restrictions. the research asks: how do these workers interpret, comply with, or contest the technical rationalities and intervention tools of externally-driven development projects?
critical development studies
Theoretically, the research is grounded in critical development studies, drawing on scholars like tania li (2007), david mosse (2004), and james ferguson (1994a) to analyse the disconnect between the technocratic rationalities of externally imposed models, such as community-driven development (cdd), and the complex realities of a protracted conflict zone. it pays particular attention to the corrosive effects of the militarisation of aid, primarily through international security assistance force- north atlantic treaty organisation’s (isaf/nato) provincial reconstruction teams (prts), which blurred humanitarian boundaries and transformed development into a tool of counterinsurgency.
The concept of "jor aamad"
A central contribution of this study is its foregrounding of the local concept of "jor aamad"—a local term for pragmatic compromise and reluctant acquiescence. the thesis argues that engaging in jor aamad was not merely a technical workaround but critical survival strategies for ngos’ afghan workers. it enabled them to navigate intersecting and often competing pressures from international donor mandates, government regulations, taliban-imposed restrictions, and socio-cultural constraints. crucially, it highlights how these workers, as intermediaries, employed jor aamad to build necessary links and conduct negotiations with powerful local actors and power brokers, including mullahs, maliks, arbabs, qomandans, and warlords, strategically managing the profound dissonance between abstract development frameworks and afghanistan's fragmented ground-level realities.