Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, aid to Afghanistan has shifted from development to humanitarian channels. It has been routed largely through UN agencies and INGOs, under tighter compliance requirements, banking constraints, and restrictions on women’s employment.
This report maps large Afghan intermediary organizations and engages international intermediaries and their partners to understand how funding and decision-making power move through the system. It finds that capacity strengthening is central to intermediary models on both the local and international side. It also finds that regranting remains concentrated among a few actors because of donor conditions, not a lack of local capacity.
The report examines the barriers to locally led action and offers recommendations for donors and intermediaries on how local organizations can take on a greater role. This study is part of The Share Trust’s series of work on intermediary models for locally led action.
