Arne Strand has a PhD in Post-war Recovery Studies through which he studied coordination of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies. His research focuses on aid coordination, forced migration and reintegration, peace building and security sector reform and humanitarian and development assistance. Strand has been team leader of several evaluations and research programmes in and on Afghanistan. He has extensive management experience from NGOs and research institutes, and has also been involved in developing management and professional capacities of Afghan NGOs and peacebuilding organisations.

Assem Mayar is a dedicated professional with a focus on climate change and its economic consequences on Afghanistan. With a strong foundation in both technical and policy-level knowledge, Dr. Mayar brings a comprehensive perspective to discussions on environmental and economic challenges. Passionate about sustainability and development, Assem actively engages in sharing insights on the intersection of climate policy and economic resilience, making them a valuable voice in conferences and expert panels.

Ayesha Wolasmal is born and raised in Oslo. She has, since 2019, worked on women’s- and children’s health in Afghanistan. Her international experience is broad, stemming from amongst other things, her work with the Norwegian military forces, and the Norwegian embassy in Afghanistan. She has also worked for the United Nations, both in the Middle East and in the Horn of Africa. Ayesha has a Master’s degree in terrorism and radicalisation from King’s College London, and is currently promoting her critically acclaimed book ‘’A thousand days of Taliban’’ – a political and personal story about Afghanistan after the NATO retreat, and the Taliban’s return to power.

Fatima Gailani is ​​a women’s rights activist and a political leader of Afghanistan. She holds a master’s degree from The Muslim College of London and a BA from Iran National University (renamed to Shahid Beheshty University). Early in her career she served as a spokesperson of the Afghan Freedom Fighters during the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. In the new government, she became a member of the highest political decision-making body called the Loya Jirga according to the country’s Constitution, and from there she was appointed as a Commissioner for drafting and getting the New Constitution ratified. Gailani previously served as the president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, and she was a senior negotiator at the 2020-21 Afghan peace talks held in Qatar.

Fereshta Abbasi is the Afghanistan Researcher in the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, focusing on research and documentation of ongoing abuses in Afghanistan. For the past 10 years she has documented human rights abuses in Afghanistan with different organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the All-Survivors Project.

Ilaria Carrozza is a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo ( PRIO), where she focuses on understanding how China extends its influence abroad and challenges the existing world order. She covers topics such as China’s foreign policy; the normative, political and security impact of artificial intelligence; great power competition; geopolitics; and the Digital Silk Road. Her broader interests include China’s engagement in Africa and Asia, the Belt and Road Initiative, South-South cooperation, and international order. She has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a MA in Chinese Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She is a regular commentator in both Norwegian and international media, including the BBC, The Guardian, and the South China Morning Post.

Karim Merchant is currently a freelance consultant on policy, programme and project development and management in the fields of rural development, humanitarian assistance, conflict-sensitive development and peacebuilding. Over the last 23 years, Karim has worked in Afghanistan with local civil society organisations, INGOS, UN Agencies, donors and the several previous Afghan governments. He lectures on Fragile and Conflict Affected States and Peacebuilding and continues to support policy and programme design initiatives for Afghanistan.

Kristian Berg Harpviken is a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He is a long-time student of Afghanistan and the surrounding region, a frequent media commentator, and lectures regularly to both scholarly and popular audiences. He is author of Social Networks and Migration in Wartime Afghanistan (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009), and (with Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh), A Rock Between Hard Places: Afghanistan as an Arena of Regional Insecurity (Hurst, 2016).

Liv Kjølseth is a Political Scientist, with a postgraduate degree from the University of Oslo, with a specialisation in International Relations. For the last decade she has held the position of Secretary General of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC). Prior to joining NAC, she was Information and Advocacy Adviser for the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People. She has previously worked for the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration (UDI).

Madina Mahboobi 

Martin Tamm Andersen is a former soldier and officer in the Danish army. He has been stationed abroad several times, in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan throughout his 18 year long career in the military. He left the military in 2017. Together with journalist and documentary filmmaker Nagieb Khaja, Martin directed the documentary ‘Winning Hearts and Minds’’ (2023). Martin and Nagieb have previously directed another documentary series, ‘’Fjendeland’’ (2019), and Martin has previously directed the documentary series ‘’The Hidden Face of War’’ (2017). Alongside his work as a documentary director, Martin has also worked on the podcast ‘’KRIG’’ (War), and works as a security advisor, and is an educated hostage negotiator.

Mustafa Himmati is the Head of Knowledge Management at the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), based in Oslo, with over a decade of experience in Afghanistan. His work at NAC has focused on project reviews, evaluations, and participatory research across various sectors. Notably, in the education sector, he contributed to key review projects, including the Afghanistan Education Joint-Sector Reviews and the Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment of the Ministry of Education between 2016 and 2019. Mustafa holds dual master’s degrees: one in Inclusive Education from the University of Bristol, UK, and another in Inclusion and Diversity in Education from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), Bandung, Indonesia.

Nadima Kakai

Payvand Seyedali is the Country Director of Women for Women International, Afghanistan, an international NGO that supports women survivors of war to rebuild their lives. She is the Founder of The Khadijah Project, a grassroots initiative that supports protection, reintegration, and advocacy and coordination efforts of women in Afghanistan. Formerly, Payvand was Senior Advisor to UN Women in Afghanistan, Senior Education Advisor to the Swedish Committee in Afghanistan, and, for the British government, led the largest gender fund in Afghanistan. In 2018, she won the NATO Leaders’ Award for Tranformative Leadership. She has lived in Afghanistan for 13 years.

Rayhana Karim is an accomplished humanitarian and development expert, with a deep specialization in women’s protection, reintegration, and advocacy in Afghanistan. Her career began in London’s legal sector before she transitioned to entrepreneurship, successfully founding and managing businesses in the hospitality industry. As the CEO of The Khadijah Project, Ms. Karim leads initiatives that provide critical support to women-led and daughter-majority families, incarcerated women, women human rights defenders, and advocates for private sector integration of women. Ms. Karim serves on the board of the Afghanistan Microfinance Association and is a former strategic advisor to the Afghan Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI), reflecting her ongoing commitment to women’s economic empowerment.

Samina Vabo Ansari is an entrepreneur, storyteller, and builder of relations. She founded Ayvanna, a platform that has aspired to connect social entrepreneurs from the Middle East and Central Asia to Europe to build sustainable growth and stability. She has a background in cyber security and law from the University in Oslo and the Maastricht Law School, and in diplomacy from SciencesPo Paris. Since 2014 she has led large projects for organisations such as NATO, the UN, the EU, the International Trade Center, Goldman Sachs, and the World Bank – on topics such as inclusive economic growth, diversity and inclusion, cyber security, and geopolitical risk. Samina has lived and worked in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2015-2021, where she actively worked on inclusion in the peace process, as well as women’s economic empowerment.

Terje Magnussønn Watterdal is an economist, and an education and disability rights activist. He is currently based in Kabul as the Country Director for the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC). He has previously worked as education advisor for governments in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and senior expert for different UN agencies in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Asia. He holds postgraduate degrees from University of Mannheim, Germany and University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Torunn Wimpelmann is a Senior Researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) where she is currently the Co-director of the research project New Afghan Men, which explores the changing notions of marriage and masculinity in Afghanistan. She is the author of, The Pitfalls of Protection: Gender, Violence and Power in Afghanistan (University of California Press, 2017).

William Byrd is a development economist who has been working extensively on Afghanistan since 2001. His academic background includes a doctorate in economics from Harvard University and a master’s degree in East Asian Regional Studies from the same institution. He had long experience at the World Bank, where most of his work was on China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has lived in all of these countries and speaks Dari and Chinese. During 2002-2006, he was stationed in Kabul where he served as the World Bank’s country manager and then as economic adviser. William Byrd currently is at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where he is a senior expert focusing on Afghanistan. He attends the Afghanistan Week in his personal capacity.