It is our belief that successful reform implementation must begin with a decent understanding of the social context. The question to probe is “where people are at?” Issues that do not carry a sense of urgency in them will not succeed in gathering sufficient mass support base and thus can fail. Advocacy efforts can help ripen issues without wasting resources on pre-mature implementation. In the wake of decreasing international presence and technical and financial support, Duran gained the experience of launching the Alliance in Support of the Afghan People (ASAP) in Afghanistan. This effort proved Duran’s existing advocacy capacity in establishing strong nation wide advocacy hubs in Afghanistan, networking, mobilizing and establishing an active coalition of advocacy network signatories and supporters, defining the initial orientation of the initiative, both in Afghanistan and abroad, establishing effective communication channels between the coalition and the technical teams outside of Afghanistan, identifying potential ASAP advocacy partners, and identifying and dispatching the first three delegations of ASAP’s Afghan supporters. This advocacy effort which targeted audiences in Afghanistan and abroad (US and Europe), involving Afghan civil society, private sector and media, successfully brought together key actors in media, civil society and the private sector who joined hands to protect the gains of the past 13 years.