Tale of Two Kabuls

Afghanistan’s capital city has experienced a financial and development boom over the past decade, growing in population from 1.5 to 5 million people while gleaming new malls and apartment complexes have sprung up and dot the landscape. But these bastions of the rich are offset by the sharp contrast of crowded shanty towns and...More
 

Warlords, government capacity threaten Afghan mining: watchdog

KABUL (Reuters) - A giant Afghan iron ore deposit may provide hope for the prosperity of the country, but the Afghan government is not able to ensure the mine is managed properly and profiteering warlords could spark further violence, a graft watchdog said on Sunday...More
 

Advocating for USAID Transparency

Integrity Watch Afghanistan had meetings in Washington DC this July in order to advocate for improving the effectiveness of aid distributed by USAID. Due to the changing US policies, IWA met with members of the Senate, Congress and the Foreign Affairs' Committee in order to advocate for mechanisms to increase accountability in Afghanistan...More
 

Corruption in Afghanistan among the most important problems for development

Heinrich-Böll-Foundation: A nationwide survey by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) showed that Afghan’s citizens consider corruption, in its many forms and manifestations, as the third most important problem in the country. How does corruption directly affect the lives of Afghan citizens? Are there corrupt practices that are tolerated by the public...More
 

Afghanistan: Mining Boom Nurures Transparency Concerns

Go looking for Wahidullah Shahrani and chances are you’ll find him at an investor conference promoting Afghanistan as an ideal opportunity for global mining companies. By most accounts the minister of mines is an effective salesman. Yet, as investor interest grows, there are doubts about whether Afghanistan has the capacity to make the most of an expected...More
 

Top Afghan Banker: From 'milk cow' to sacrificial lamb?

When he was Afghanistan’s top banker, Abdul Qadir Fitrat was known as the "milk cow". But after a high profile parliamentary disclosure on the Kabul Bank scandal, Fitrat's fortunes changed, forcing him to flee Afghanistan...More
 

IWA attends 6th AEITI Multi-stakeholders Group meeting

The Extractive Industries Monitoring pillar of IWA participated at the 6th AEITI Multi-stakeholders Group meeting that was held on June 5, 2011 in the... More
 

Trillion-dollar treasure August 2010

Afghanistan’s potentially massive mineral wealth could transform the country’s stuttering economy and help to re-establish the people’s trust in government. Now for the hard part...More
 

Promoting Social Accountability in South Asia

Integrity Watch Afghanistan participated this month to the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability’s Strategic Consultation meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The network consists of civil society...More
 

The Hasty exit strategy February 2011
As the Western powers prepare to hightail it out of Afghanistan, there is little accountability to the Afghan People. 'if only you could take the Afghans out of the equation, you might be able to rebuild their country...More
 

Et lysglimt i kampen mot korrupsjon
Korrupsjon er et omfattende problem i Afghanistan. Integrity Watch Afghanistan er en av få organisasjoner som klarer å sette problemet på dagsorden og bidra til korrupsjonsbekjempelse, - med støtte fra Norge.

Norge, sammen med det internasjonale samfunnet, legger hele tiden press på afghanske myndigheter for å bekjempe korrupsjon. Til tross for dette oppleves til tider manglende politisk vilje til å ta tak i problemene...More
 

2011 Expansion in Aid Effectiveness
The Community Based Monitoring (CBM) Pillar trained 80 local monitors and 120 government officials and civil society members in aid effectiveness, community mobilisation and integrity in 2010.

National Corruption Survey 2010
Corruption is rampant and has become more entrenched in all areas of life in Afghanistan. The Afghan population as a whole paid twice as much in 2009 as it had paid in 2006. Bribery today represents a burden of 1 billion USD on the Afghan GDP. One adult in seven experienced direct bribery in Afghanistan in 2009 while 28% of Afghan households paid a bribe to obtain at least one public service....More
 

$52bn of American aid and still Afghans are dying of starvation
The most extraordinary failure of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan is that the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars has had so little impact on the misery in which 30 million Afghans live. As President Barack Obama prepares this week to present a review of America's strategy in Afghanistan which is likely to...More 
 

Afghanistan Improves Budget Transparency
There has been a 21% improvement in Afghan budget transparency in the last two years, according to Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan has said an improvement in budget transparency will cut corruption and increase donor countries' willingness to spend their funds through the Afghan...More 
 

In Afghanistan, anti-corruption fight goes local
JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN - Khalis Shinwari doesn't have arrest powers, lacks an official mandate and works unarmed. But the volunteer inspector, assigned by local elders to identify cases of graft and shoddy craftsmanship on development projects, might represent the best hope of stamping out corruption in a country where it has become...More
 

EITI Global Conference in Paris
The Global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Conference was held this year in Paris. The conference brought heads of states, government leaders, private companies and civil society together to discuss the improvements that need to take place in each country to shape the future of EITI...More

$52bn of American aid and still Afghans are dying of starvation
The most extraordinary failure of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan is that the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars has had so little impact on the misery in which 30 million Afghans live. As President Barack Obama prepares this week to present a review of America's strategy in Afghanistan which is likely to...More 
 

IWA's interview with France 24 on the Afghan elections
Date: 21st October 2009 IWA's interview with France 24 on the Afghan elections...More

Date: 21st October 2009
 

Integrity Manual
The manual is aimed at giving the methodologies necessary to implement pro-integrity programs considering the Afghan context and at assisting Afghan CSO to be run efficiently and transprantly in the Afghan context. Dari and Pashto version of the manual are available....More
 

Local Monitoring Groups engineering training videos
These videos are used to illustrate the problemes typically encountered by local monitors during their work. These videos explain the sources and the possible solutions to solve these construction challenges. They are used as a training tool for the local monitors...More
 

CORRUPTION IGNORED, DEPLORED IN AFGHANISTAN
Lorenzo Delesgues, director of the local think tank Integrity Watch Afghanistan, recently conducted a study looking at the impact of corruption on people's....More
 

REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN: LOCAL WANT SAY MORE
Lorenzo Delesgues, who heads Integrity Watch Afghanistan, a think tank based in Kabul, says one of its surveys concluded that no more than 40 cents of each...More
 

Civil Society asks government to liberate Afghan Citizens from the burdens of corruption by passing an Act of Access to Information

Published on: 18 July 2010

KABUL, 17 civil society actors, representing more than 200 civil society organisations, and several media organisations, unite before the approaching Kabul Conference to ask the Afghan Government to pass the draft Act of Access to Information prepared by Civil Society and Human Rights Network to grant Afghan citizens their constitutional right following Art 50 to access information....More
 

Chinese Afghan Mining Project Will Need Monitoring, Experts Say

Published on: 18 Feb 2010 | Bloomberg

A Chinese copper mining project in Afghanistan will require diligent monitoring to ensure local people and the country benefit from it, a World Bank official and other experts said. The Aynak mine project, awarded in 2007 to the Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd., or MCC, has the potential to generate at least $210 million a year for the Afghan economy during the construction phase alone, said Gary McMahon, a mining specialist with the World Bank...More