Evidence x Emergency: Insights from Teach For Afghanistan’s Frontlines

Education in Afghanistan has never been separate from crises. It has been shaped by it, interrupted by it, and sustained despite it. Yet beyond the statistics on access and learning loss are people who continue to teach, lead, and believe in an educated and empowered generation of Afghans. In this conversation, we speak with Rahmatullah Arman, the Founder and CEO of Teach For Afghanistan, an organisation part of the Teach For All network, born out of  lived experience of conflict and possibility. This interview explores what education in emergencies looks like when the “emergency” is decades long. It reflects on what evidence in emergency settings looks like today and what it needs to become to meaningfully inform practice in complex, long-term crises. We begin with the origin story. 

Interviewer: What inspired you to found Teach For Afghanistan? What gap in education or crisis response were you trying to fill?

Arman: I grew up during decades of conflict, where schools were repeatedly destroyed, teachers were absent or untrained, and learning was constantly disrupted. Like millions of Afghan children, I lost access to quality education at critical stages of my life. That experience made me acutely aware of what poor-quality and interrupted education costs a child, not just academically, but also in terms of life opportunities.

Years later, while studying in India, I encountered Teach For India and volunteered in its classrooms. For the first time, I saw what high-quality education looks like: committed teachers, active learning, safe classrooms, and students encouraged to dream beyond their circumstances. That experience was transformative and made one thing very clear to me: Afghan children deserve the same, regardless of conflict.

At the same time, Afghanistan’s education response was dominated by short-term, project-based interventions. While many focused on access, very few addressed quality, teacher leadership, or long-term system change. Plus, there was no sustained effort to develop young Afghan leaders who could shape their communities and the country.

Teach For Afghanistan (TAO) was founded to fill this gap. Our goal is two-fold. First, to ensure children, especially those in underserved communities, have access to high-quality education delivered by committed and well-trained teachers. Second, to create leadership opportunities for Afghan youth, so our communities and country are ultimately led by talented young leaders who understand local realities.

Because Afghanistan’s context is unique, it took us four years of learning from communities and careful adaptation before we officially launched in 2016. 

Interviewer: Afghanistan has experienced decades of instability. From where you stand, what does “education in emergencies or EiE” look like in Afghanistan today?

Arman: In Afghanistan, education has been in a prolonged state of emergency for over 45 years. Continuous conflict has destroyed infrastructure and led to severe displacement, trauma, and teacher shortages. Despite this, Afghan families continue to view education as the most important pathway to a better future. This very belief has sustained learning efforts even under extreme constraints.

Today, EiE in Afghanistan is beyond access. It is about maintaining learning continuity, ensuring quality teaching, supporting educators under pressure, and responding to policy, economic, and social uncertainties that affect who can learn and how. The complexity and duration of these challenges make Afghanistan one of the most difficult education contexts in the world today. 

Interviewer: Given the realities you’ve described, how do you currently use research or evidence in your work, if you do? 

Arman: Accessing reliable data in Afghanistan remains challenging due to logistical and institutional constraints. At TAO, we rely on a combination of locally generated data, field-based assessments, and credible secondary sources. We conduct our own research on teacher supply, program design, school needs, and placement strategies, and we triangulate this with data from trusted national and international institutions as much as possible.

While we try to inform every stage of our work with research and evidence, it is not always perfect. I think disciplined triangulation and continuous field feedback allows us to make more informed and responsible decisions..

Interviewer: Do you feel the research produced about Afghanistan or EiE more broadly is actually accessible to the practitioners who need it most? What kinds of evidence feel useful, and what kinds feel disconnected from reality on the ground?

Arman: Over the past 10 to 15 years, a significant body of research on Afghanistan has been produced, largely by major international organizations such as UN agencies, the World Bank, and large international NGOs. This work has contributed valuable insights but much of this research was conducted during periods of high insecurity. As a result, many studies were implemented in very limited geographic areas, often urban centers or locations where travel and security were manageable. Sample sizes were sometimes small, verification was difficult, and in many cases analysis was conducted remotely or from institutional offices with limited field access.

This is not a critique of all research or all organizations, but of a broader pattern shaped by constraints. Now, after more than four decades of conflict, the security environment in many parts of the country is more stable. This creates an important opportunity for broader, more inclusive, field-based research that reaches diverse provinces, districts, and communities in Afghanistan. Future research must build on past efforts while expanding its scope and depth to better reflect today’s on-the-ground realities.

Interviewer: How does local or community-generated knowledge shape your decisions? Do you feel the global research community values this kind of evidence enough?

Arman: Community-generated knowledge is foundational to our work. In Afghanistan, parents, educators, elders, and local leaders play a decisive role in shaping education outcomes. We do not design or implement programs without engaging directly with communities and understanding their needs and priorities. That has been our greatest strength. 

However, I believe this type of evidence is often undervalued globally. Local data is harder to standardize, less visible internationally, and often underfunded. As a result, it rarely carries the same weight as large datasets produced externally.

One of the major reasons many initiatives failed in Afghanistan, and why the state collapsed so rapidly despite trillions of dollars in investment, was the failure to listen to local people. Policies and programs were often based on assumptions that if something worked in Rwanda or Bangladesh, it would work in Afghanistan. That approach consistently proved wrong. Sustainable change requires understanding local needs and social dynamics instead of simply importing models.

Interviewer: Where do you see opportunities for more meaningful collaboration between researchers and local organisations like Teach For Afghanistan? What questions or topics should scholars be investigating to strengthen your work?

Arman: There are a ton of opportunities! Local organisations bring assets that are often underestimated: long-term presence, trust-based relationships with communities, cultural and linguistic fluency, and the ability to access diverse geographic areas at relatively low cost. TAO, for example, has been operating on the ground for nearly a decade, with alumni, fellows, and partners active across all regions of the country. Our network enables us to reach schools, families, and communities that many international actors cannot easily access.

We hope for researchers to work in partnership with local organisations and not merely through them. A truly useful research partnership would be co-designed from the beginning. Local organisations should be involved in shaping research questions, methodology, sampling, data collection, interpretation, and dissemination. This not only ensures that studies are grounded in real needs but also that findings are immediately applicable to practice and policy. Such partnerships must also be equitable, with a focus on transparency and recognition of local expertise.

Personally, I think topics around combating teacher shortages, community perceptions of education, pathways for youth leadership, localized pedagogical practices, inclusive education amidst constraints, and strengthening school attendance would help us most. 

Interviewer: We see global attention shift quickly from crisis to crisis. What does global silence feel like on the ground and what does it cost Afghan children and teachers?

Arman: When global attention shifts away, it is deeply felt. Afghanistan continues to face extraordinary challenges, and reduced attention translates into fewer resources, weakened systems, and growing pressure on children and educators.

A useful reminder comes from the great Afghan poet, Jalaluddin Rumi, who says, ‘When one candle lights another, it does not lose its light’. Supporting one community in need does not require abandoning another. The world has the capacity to respond to multiple crises simultaneously, and compassion is not a finite resource. History shows that such solidarity ultimately benefits everyone as societies recover and contribute back to the global community.

Interviewer: In moments when it feels impossible, what strengths does the Afghan community possess in continuing to provide education in times of crisis and adversity?

Arman: Afghan communities possess remarkable resilience and solidarity. In times of crisis, people come together to support one another, emotionally, socially, and materially. This collective spirit has enabled communities to continue educating children both formally and informally, even when systems are under strain.

Mutual support, shared responsibility, and deep respect for education and culture remain powerful forces sustaining learning across generations.

Interviewer: If you could deliver one message to global education leaders, donors, and researchers, one that you feel is not being heard, what would it be?

Arman: Do not disengage from Afghanistan. Sustainable progress depends on long-term commitment and respect for Afghan expertise. To really see lasting impact, future efforts must prioritize listening to local voices, investing in community-rooted organizations, and designing solutions grounded in Afghan realities.

Interviewer: Anything else you would like to share with the CIES Community? 

Arman: I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the CIES community for creating space for practitioner voices from complex and underrepresented contexts. We have been eager to engage more actively with CIES, as participants, contributors, and long-term community members.

Teach For Afghanistan brings nearly a decade of locally rooted experience in EiE. We believe there is strong alignment between our work and CIES’s vision. We would welcome opportunities for collaboration, joint research, practitioner–scholar exchange, and knowledge-sharing that bridges research and frontline realities.

Interviewed and edited by

Aishwarya Shetty