The Stabilisation for Peace in North-East Afghanistan (SPNA) programme was a nine-year accompanying research initiative commissioned by the Aga Khan Foundation and KfW. ARC led the research across multiple cohorts and follow-up rounds.

Tasks included:

• Design and implementation of biennial household surveys (5,000+ households per round)
• Development of a five-dimension stability indicator system (security, development, local capacities, governance, state relations)
• Training and field accompaniment of local research teams
• Qualitative governance research (expert interviews, ethnographic fieldwork)
• Reporting to AKF, KfW, and the German Federal Foreign Office (AA)
• Briefings to political stakeholders inside and outside Afghanistan

Results: Longitudinal dataset 2010–2019 across multiple cohorts; annual impact reports; the SPNA stability indicator approach; basis for the DDF evaluation (2020–2023) and the RIDF ex-post evaluation (2021); multiple academic publications.