From June 2004 to January 2007, Groupe URD conducted research into the links between relief rehabilitation and development in Afghanistan. Funded by the European Commission, the project was conducted using a multidisciplinary approach analysing six sectors: rural development, water/irrigation, nutrition, urban development, health and education.

In order to improve the quality of service brought to populations, the aim of the LRRD project was to understand how NGOs, and the aid community as a whole, position themselves in the transition between emergency relief (visibility/rapid impact) and development where longer-term approaches are favoured.

A mixture of research, evaluation and training, the LRRD project looked at different forms of aid in the main operational sectors, analysing practices and their impact on populations.
This project led to the opening of an office in Kabul in January 2005 with a team of junior and senior researchers to carry out the work.

In 2005 the work focused on 6 sectors (water, agriculture, nutrition, health, education, urban development) and three pillars (research, evaluation and training).

The following research was carried out :
- Five studies of different agrarian systems reflecting the agricultural and ecological diversity of the country;
- Studies of three cities (Kabul, Jalalabad, Bamyan)
- Institutional diagnoses for each of the above sectors.

A number of evaluations were carried out. Sector and multi-sector reports were then written on the impact of reconstruction in Afghanistan.
In 2006, a new evaluation was carried out by our specialists in food security, water management, education, health and urban development. The mission report is in two parts, one on individual sectors and the other on cross-cutting issues. This completes a series of monographs dealing with institutional changes in the different sectors.

Each year, a number of conferences, reconstructions, and training sessions were held for Afghan and international NGOs, Afghan ministries and funding agencies.

A large conference was held in January 2007 to mark the end of the project. Discussions are underway to set up a follow-up project. Its name will be ‘Kaïfiat’, which means ‘quality’ in the Dari language.

All publications from the LRRD project in Afghanistan