Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Before the Trump administration cut most aid to Afghanistan in 2025, the United States was the country’s largest donor, providing more than $3 billion in humanitarian and development assistance after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) finds that much of this aid was diverted by the Taliban through favoritism, restrictions on NGOs, staff extortion, and alleged collusion with senior UN officials demanding kickbacks. The report concludes that the global aid system for countries under hostile regimes is fundamentally broken, costly, opaque, and riddled with layers of agencies and subcontractors that inflate expenses, obscure accountability, and invite corruption.
What lessons can be drawn from Afghanistan and from aid delivery in other conflict zones such as South Sudan, Syria, and beyond? Join us for a panel discussion examining how aid systems do or do not manage diversion and conflict-sensitivity risks, the factors shaping these approaches, and potential strategies for improving them at both the donor and implementer levels.
The conversation featured Joseph Windrem, director of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) Lessons Learned Program, Jordan Kane, senior analyst in SIGAR’s Lessons Learned Program, and Audrey Bottjen, international aid and conflict sensitivity consultant. Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, moderated.
#corruption #afghanistan #syria #southsudan
Before the Trump administration cut most aid to Afghanistan in 2025, the United States was the country’s largest donor, providing more than $3 billion in humanitarian and development assistance after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) finds that much of this aid was diverted by the Taliban through favoritism, restrictions on NGOs, staff extortion, and alleged collusion with senior UN officials demanding kickbacks. The report concludes that the global aid system for countries under hostile regimes is fundamentally broken, costly, opaque, and riddled with layers of agencies and subcontractors that inflate expenses, obscure accountability, and invite corruption.
What lessons can be drawn from Afghanistan and from aid delivery in other conflict zones such as South Sudan, Syria, and beyond? Join us for a panel discussion examining how aid systems do or do not manage diversion and conflict-sensitivity risks, the factors shaping these approaches, and potential strategies for improving them at both the donor and implementer levels.
The conversation featured Joseph Windrem, director of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) Lessons Learned Program, Jordan Kane, senior analyst in SIGAR’s Lessons Learned Program, and Audrey Bottjen, international aid and conflict sensitivity consultant. Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, moderated.
#corruption #afghanistan #syria #southsudan
