Interministerial Strategic Evaluation of Germany’s Civil Engagement in Afghanistan

Following the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 and the call for alliance action in line with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, Germany has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2001. Germany’s goal here is to help the state and society in Afghanistan to become more stable and achieve social and economic development through a networked approach, in other words through interaction between civilian and military means.

In view of the significance of Germany’s civil engagement in Afghanistan, the ministries involved agreed to appraise their engagement in the context of an interministerial evaluation. Against this backdrop, DEval added the evaluation of the Afghanistan engagement to its evaluation programme at the turn of the year 2020/2021. 

With its policy guidelines “Preventing crises, resolving conflicts, building peace”, the Federal Government has committed itself to performing a closing evaluation to assess the effects and experiences of German engagement in crisis and conflict states. In addition to this, the Federal Government’s coalition contract entitled “Dare more progress” stresses the necessity of interministerial evaluations. The interministerial evaluation of the civil engagement of the AA, BMI and BMZ in Afghanistan is therefore intended to play a role in further mainstreaming evaluation as an instrument of learning and accountability and lay the foundations for future strategic planning, steering and implementation. As a result, lessons should be learned from the evaluation for future engagement in Afghanistan as well as for German engagement in other fragile contexts.

Following the evaluation of the civil engagement of the AA and the BMZ in Iraq, this is already the second interministerial country evaluation with the involvement of DEval.

The object of the joint evaluation is the Federal Government’s civil Afghanistan engagement in its entirety in the period from 2013 to 2021, including the transitions and interfaces between the ministries. A working group consisting of DEval, DHPol (the German Police University) and a consortium managed by GFA (GFA Consulting Group GmbH) is conducting the evaluation. Prof. Christoph Zürcher from the University of Ottawa is providing expert support.

As the established structures collapsed as a result of the Taliban taking power in August 2021, there was a fundamental change in the framework conditions in Afghanistan. In the face of these dramatic circumstances, the interministerial strategic evaluation of German civil engagement became even more relevant than before. It now entails various activities to appraise the engagement up to 2021, above all the Study Commission on Afghanistan, which the Bundestag has established with the aim of drawing lessons from Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan for foreign and security policy in future, and the Committee of Inquiry on Afghanistan.

The evaluation aims to perform an independent and comprehensive analysis and assessment of the engagement of the ministries involved (the AA, BMI and BMZ) in the period from 2013 to 2021. In this way, the evaluation should make a contribution to accountability and to joint interministerial learning. It also aims to establish the extent to which potential lessons learned can be conveyed to other conflict contexts. In addition, the evaluation is intended to play a role in further developing the procedures with a view to interministerial or overarching evaluations in the future.

The working group is currently working together to define the methodological approach. Further details will be provided soon. In view of the contextual circumstances in Afghanistan, a conflict-sensitive procedure will be ensured throughout the entire evaluation period.