While the initial international intervention in Afghanistan was broached with great optimism that a stable, democratic government would replace the Taliban, the reality has been far different.  A decade and a half on, the Afghan government is dangerously divided and has lost control of over half of the country.  While there have undoubtedly been development successes, such as the National Solidarity Program, the international aid effort has been plagued by misuse, poor programming and corruption.

Fifteen years on from the post-9/11 US and NATO interventions and ahead of the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan on 5 October 2016, how do networks of access function across Afghanistan, from the political elite, to traders surviving on the margins of the economy? What lessons have been learned about state building, development and governance?  And what are the prospects now for the future of Afghanistan?

This event is hosted by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), and draws upon field research at household, village, district and provincial levels on the political and economic marketplace in Afghanistan since 2013. This event brings together panellists from Afghanistan and elsewhere to discuss what went wrong, what went well and what the future holds.