The major attacks in Kabul this week have renewed questions on how well the country can deal with such challenges and also meet civilian needs ahead of the security transition in 2014. 

To address this and other issues, Ken Yamashita, USAID's mission director to Afghanistan, and Greg Huger, USAID Afghanistan senior development officer, visited the U.S. Institute of Peace on April 16 for an off-the-record discussion. 

Yamashita (center) and Huger (pictured right) provided on-the-ground perspectives of how recent events in Afghanistan are affecting civilian assistance.  They also discussed how USAID is focusing its program toward increasing Afghanistan's resilience to withstand the economic, security and governance challenges associated with the transition and drawdown of international forces slated for 2014. 

Andrew Wilder (pictured left), director of USIP's Afghanistan and Pakistan programs, moderated the roundtable discussion.   

In his opening remarks Wilder highlighted USIP's efforts through events like this to bring greater awareness and understanding of the critically  important political and economic transitions that Afghanistan faces during the coming years, at a time when most policy and media attention is focused on the security transition

Learn more about USIP's on the ground work in Afghanistan.