New HPG Publication ‘Talking to the Other Side: Humanitarian Engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan’

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By Ashley Jackson and Antonio Giustozzi 

As international troops withdraw from Afghanistan, this new report sheds light on how aid agencies engage with the Taliban to gain access to Afghans in need of assistance. The authors examine how the Taliban view aid organisations by drawing on dozens of interviews with Taliban leaders and fighters. The first substantive research of its kind into access, ‘Talking to the Other Side’ illuminates issues that aid workers have been reluctant to speak about openly. 

‘Talking to the Other Side’ is based on almost 150 interviews with Afghans, aid agencies, Taliban and diplomats and offers a series of recommendations for the development of constructive negotiations. All these are underpinned by the logic of one of the report’s principal assertions: namely, that the greatest guarantee of security for aid workers and those they seek to help is structured engagement with the Taliban – in other words, negotiations carried out at multiple levels to secure consent to access. 

Download the report here