A Guide to Government in Afghanistan

This joint AREU and World Bank publication has three objectives: 1) it seeks to provide newcomers to the political and administrative scene in Afghanistan with a basic guide to the structures and processes of government; 2) it intends to provider reformers with some understanding of how to work “with the grain” of existing institutional arrangements; and 3) it seeks to pay tribute to the remarkable people who have kept government running and those who are reforming it. The guide draws the bulk of its material from six provincial case studies: Faryab and Herat, undertaken in November 2002; Badakhshan and Wardak in April 2003; Kandahar in June 2003; and finally Bamiyan in July 2003.