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This study examines the current state of coordination between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector actors in Afghanistan, focusing on how these actors engage across humanitarian and development programming and how such engagement contributes to localisation and sustainable development outcomes. The evidence shows that while collaboration exists across multiple sectors, it remains largely fragmented, informal, and operational, with limited institutionalisation for long-term strategic partnership development.
Across NGOs collaboration is most commonly observed through bilateral partnerships, donor-facilitated coordination, government-mediated contracting, and informal relationship-based arrangements. These partnerships are most active in agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), telecommunications, small and medium enterprise (SME) development, and service delivery sectors, where private actors mainly contribute technical expertise, implementation capacity, or market access. NGOs typically retain leadership over programme design and resource allocation, while private sector actors are more frequently engaged through procurement and service delivery contracting but rarely as strategic partners involved in programme design, co-investment, or shared accountability. As a result, collaboration is strongest at the operational level, moderate at the programmatic level, and weakest at the system level where policy, investment, and coordination structures are defined. A key pattern in the evidence is that partnership effectiveness tends to be perceived more positively at the relationship and operational level where collaboration delivers clear value in livelihoods, enterprise support, or service provision than at the system level, where informants with broader coordination and policy roles were more skeptical about overall effectiveness.
Partnerships demonstrate clear value where they deliver practical results such as vocational training, micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) support, infrastructure delivery, and service provision. Key informants noted, effectiveness is strongest when collaboration is supported by flexible procurement, cash-based approaches, strong community networks, and technical leadership from private actors such as vocational training, MSME support, infrastructure delivery, and service provision. Evidence also highlights that integrated and area-based programming, along with neutral conveners, such as organisations or platforms capable of facilitating dialogue, building trust, and aligning incentives across NGOs, private sector actors, and government, helps improve alignment and coordination. More successful cases combine market linkage, capacity building, and longer-term engagement, while weaker models are associated with short-term, fragmented, and poorly contextualised interventions.
Despite positive examples, the overall system is constrained less by lack of willingness among actors than by a weak enabling architecture — fragmented coordination mechanisms, short funding cycles, unequal risk distribution, and regulatory uncertainty that collectively shape how partnerships are designed and sustained.
Coordination mechanisms remain fragmented and weakly institutionalised, with no consistent platform for structured partnership development. Key constraints include unclear policy and regulatory frameworks, fragmented institutional mandates, weak PPP structures, and limited legal clarity for SMEs and women-led enterprises. Financial constraints such as short-term funding cycles, rigid donor modalities, limited risk-sharing, and delayed payments further restrict effective collaboration. These are reinforced by market-level challenges, including weak value chains, limited infrastructure, low access to finance, skills gaps, and broader political and economic instability.
Collaboration contributes positively to inclusion, particularly for women and rural communities, through livelihoods, MSME development, vocational training, and targeted cash-for-work programmes. Women’s economic participation is the most visible area of impact, especially in small enterprises and agriculture-based activities. However, inclusion of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups remains limited. Outcomes are strongest when interventions are deliberately designed, locally contextualised, and linked to markets and sustainable income opportunities rather than short-term assistance.
The findings indicate that localisation in Afghanistan is developing in form but remains constrained for local actors including NNGOs and private sector. Primary KII data from across stakeholder groups confirms that private sector actors are present but not consistently empowered, consulted but not given a decision-making role, and relied upon for delivery without corresponding influence over strategy or resources while decision-making authority, programme design, and financial control remain concentrated with NGOs and donors. This pattern mirrors what the ACBAR/LTWG Localisation Baseline Assessment found for NNGOs, and this study’s primary data validates that it extends to locally owned private sector actors as well. Strengthening localisation requires shifting power to local actors through deeper participation in design and budgeting, improved access to finance, stronger institutional coordination, and more flexible funding mechanisms. The evidence suggests that localisation will remain limited unless constraints in funding, policy, and coordination are addressed.