Dr Habiba Sarabi is Deputy Chair of the High Peace Council and Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer of Afghanistan on Women and Youth affairs. She was appointed as Governor of Bamiyan Province by President Hamid Karzai in 2005 – the first Afghan woman to become a governor of any province in the country. She previously served as Minister of Women’s Affairs as well as Minister of Culture and Education. Dr Sarabi has been instrumental in promoting women’s rights and representation and environment issues.

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Abdul Hadi Sadat is a researcher with over 15 years of experience in qualitative social research with organisations including the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), the Center for Policy and Human Development (CPHD) and Creative Associates International. He has a degree in journalism from Kabul University.

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Accord Issue 27: Afghanistan

Scott Worden is director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to joining USIP, he was director of the Lessons Learned Program at the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), and served as acting director of policy as well as a senior policy advisor for the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Dr Christopher D. Kolenda, Founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy in Washington DC, recently served as the Senior Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan to US Under Secretary of Defense Michèle A. Flournoy and three four-star Generals in Afghanistan. He was decorated with the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award for his work on strategy. A veteran of four combat tours in Afghanistan, Chris holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College, London; his dissertation is a critical analysis of American strategic leadership in post-9/11 wars.

Ed Hadley has worked for the UK government on foreign policy and conflict issues for nearly 15 years. After posts at the Assessments Staff of the Cabinet Office and National Security Secretariat, he worked for the Foreign Office for five years as a Senior Research Analyst on Afghanistan, with a particular focus on the Taliban insurgency. In 2015 he moved to the Stabilisation Unit, where he continues to focus on Afghanistan and South Asia as well as on wider research projects on peace processes and elite bargains and the analysis of the impact of UK stabilisation interventions abroad.

Fleur Roberts is a British & Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group trustee and has worked with civil society in Afghanistan since 2011. She has had a particular focus on working with local civil society to test and deliver locally led approaches to support sustainable development. She holds an MA in International Development from the University of Auckland.

Jawed Nader has been the Director of British & Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group since 2012. He has extensive experience in promoting civil society and good governance in Afghanistan. He worked as the Director of the Afghanistan Land Authority (2009-2011), and as Advocacy Manager with the Afghan Civil Society Forum (2002-2006). He is from Ghazni, Afghanistan and holds a postgraduate degree in Public Policy from the University of Bristol.

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Accord Issue 27: Afghanistan

Julius Cavendish lived in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2011, reporting for a range of titles including Time, the Independent, Christian Science Monitor, the Times, and The National. He interviewed many of the protagonists of the Sangin peace accords and wrote a detailed account of the saga for the Afghanistan Analysts Network. He now lives in London.

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Accord Issue 27: Afghanistan

Suhail Shaheen was educated at Kabul University and is a fluent English speaker and prolific writer. He edited the English- language, state-owned Kabul Times during the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, before being appointed Deputy Ambassador at the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan. He now serves as spokesman for the Taliban Political Office in Qatar.

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Accord Issue 27: Afghanistan

Ambassador Douglas Lute is the former United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s standing political body. In 2010 he retired from active duty in the Army as a Lieutenant General after 35 years of service. In 2007 President George W. Bush named him as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor to coordinate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving a total of six years in the White House. General Lute holds degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point and from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.