Speakers

Orzala Nemat

Place of Birth : Afghanistan
Born : 1977
Position : Director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), Afghanistan
Field of study : Conflict and Development, Governance, Local Governance, Gender, Security & Governance

Orzala Nemat is an Afghan scholar and civil society activist. Dr. Nemat holds Ph.D. in Development Studies from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), MSc from University College London (UCL) and has been a Yale World Fellow class of 2008. As an expert in political ethnography, her research interest includes development and conflict, gender, governance and borderlands studies. Her Ph.D. thesis in Development Studies focused on local governance relations that result from external interventions. Dr. Nemat born, lived and worked in Afghanistan (and for fourteen years in Pakistan as refugee), she experienced different aspect of life in varying environments. Following to completion of her Doctorate studies and two years of teaching at SOAS (UK), Nemat moved back to her home country, serving briefly as the Afghan president's advisor on local governance and then leading Afghan Think Tank Afghanistan Research & Evaluation Unit (AREU). As an Afghan scholar with over 16 years of experience in development practice, activism and women’s rights, Nemat brings an enriching experience into her new career path, leading Afghanistan Research & Evaluation Unit (AREU), one of the top research think-tanks in Central Asia region & Afghanistan. Dr. Nemat provides regular analysis through her writings, talks, media appearance and scholarly work on conflict, development, gender and the way local power relations affected by global interventions.

• Leading one of the top research think tanks in central Asia, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit is ranked as top 5th research organization

• Leading and managing an organization that is expert in social research and policy engagements

• Winning research bids from world’s renounced research organizations such as Research Council of UK (RC-UK) and the European Union on Natural Resource Management.

• She has over 20 years of experience (nearly half of her life) in the public sphere.

• In 1999 she founded and led (until 2007) a grassroots organization leading girls education in Afghanistan and among refugees in Pakistan.

• In 2008 she worked for UNDP on Governance Support Unit, providing professional support to major UN program on local governance.

• In 2009 she joined a humanitarian Dutch NGO and working to support development work in different parts of Afghanistan.

• From 2010-2014, she was busy focusing on her Ph.D. research. Spending year 2012 in Afghanistan conducting ethnographic field research in two provinces.

• 2014-2016 Teaching Development and Conflict and Development in practice courses for undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters) classes at SOAS (UK)

• In 2016 she served briefly as Afghan President’s Advisor on sub-national governance and prepared a national policy draft for H.E. the president which lead to the road map for sub-national governance in Afghanistan.

• She has joined Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) and leading the organization, Since 2016.