Speakers biographies:

Ms Shaharzad Akbar is Country Director for Open Society Afghanistan, and co-founder of the youth-led political movement Afghanistan 1400. She completed her first degree at Smith College in the USA, and as a Weidenfeld-Hoffman Scholar was the first Afghan woman to study at Oxford University, where she obtained an MPhil in Development Studies. She has also worked as a Partner at QARA Consulting, Inc.

Dr Timor Sharan is Director of the Program Management Unit, The Asia Foundation, Afghanistan. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in the political economy of international intervention and peacebuilding from the University of Exeter. His PhD thesis examined the impact of the power dynamics of local groups and political organisations on violence and statehood in post-2001 international intervention in Afghanistan. He has written papers and policy articles for Central Asian Survey, Europe-Asia Studies and Foreign Policy.