ACBAR

ACBAR structure

The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development (ACBAR) is a national, independent, non-governmental organization (NGO) network that serves as a collective platform for coordination, information sharing, advocacy, and collaboration among national and international NGOs operating across Afghanistan.

ACBAR was established in August 1988, in response to the growing need for coordination among NGOs supporting Afghan refugees and delivering assistance inside Afghanistan. Since 2002, ACBAR’s Secretariat has been based in Kabul, serving as the central coordination hub for its members and partners.To strengthen field-level engagement and member support, ACBAR maintains regional representation across Afghanistan through our seven regional offices, including Jalalabad, Herat, Kandahar, Khost, Mazar-e-Sharif, Bamyan, and Kunduz.

his structure ensures full regional coverage and enables continuous coordination, member support, and stakeholder engagement across all regions of the country.

ACBAR operates through a democratic governance structure. The General Assembly, comprising all member organizations, is the highest decision-making body and meets once annually to set strategic direction and review progress. Oversight is provided by a 15 Steering Committee members elected from the membership and led by a Chair, Vice-Chair, and Treasurer.

 

 

ACBAR Core Activities

Activities focus on information sharing, coordination, advocacy with NGO members, the government, UN, donors and wider civil society.  It also provides capacity building support to its members.  These activities are managed by different departments in the secretariat.

Information and Coordination Activities

The information-coordination department is responsible for providing essential information to NGO members, facilitating coordination mechanisms and collecting data on NGO members. Essential information is provided to members via email.
Sectoral information and issues are circulated to members working in those relevant sectors and humanitarian information is sent to those members working in the humanitarian sector.
ACBAR updates its members on key issues, regulations and government legislation and acts as a mediator between its members and the Government when required.
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Advocacy and Communication Activities

ACBAR plays a leading role in representing and defending the interests of its member NGOs, especially with the government but also with the international community. ACBAR actively promotes the position of NGOs and responds to issues or problems faced by the NGO community. For this, maintaining relationships and open communication channels with key players and decision makers able to influence the work of NGOs in Afghanistan is an essential task of ACBAR.
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Capacity Building Activities

ACBAR’s has two capacity building programmes.  In the training programme ACBAR trainers provide a variety of training modules to NGO partners and wider civil society in all the main provincial cities in Afghanistan.
ACBAR also created the Twinning Programme for national NGOs to be supported and mentored by International NGOs in the humanitarian sector. The mentoring provided by INGO partners is to help build up the management and leadership of the national organisation as well as share institutional knowledge.
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Developing and Promoting NGO transparency and accountability

In helping members to demonstrate their legitimacy and accountability, ACBAR has spearheaded the establishment of a voluntary Code of Conduct.  The Code of Conduct is a national NGO code established in Afghanistan in 2004 and is mandatory for all ACBAR members to sign and respect as a condition of membership.
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