Duran is a research firm with aspiration to serve. Duran aims to be a platform with the capacity to offer direction and centrality, exercise leadership and bridge dialogues within Afghanistan, thereby contributing to the shaping of the Afghan narrative. We are rooted in the context in which we operate. We aim at sustaining this space for positive work, as well as reorienting its active elements, to guarantee the strategic positioning and impact of the perspective of Afghanistan’s socio-politically active segment of the society within the larger regional and international debates. As a member of the nascent Afghan civil society sector, Duran finds meaning in building productive partnerships with other national, regional and international stakeholders.

As part of the Afghan civil society, we feel responsible for Afghanistan’s evolving social, political and economic context. Informed by the failings of the past, rooted in the present-day context and committed to our country’s future, we believe in developing capacity and courage to take charge of our challenges, face our harsh realities and further the process towards a useful and practical social, cultural, economic and political transition.

Duran envisions becoming a leading source of capacity improvement, indigenous research, independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas, rooted in the Afghan context, serving to ensure the strategic positioning and impact of the Afghan perspective within the larger regional and international debates on Afghan stability.

Duran’s mission is to facilitate the integration of information and learning exercises, and provision of alternative analytical frames, and to orient policy development processes aimed at improving people’s standard of living through enhanced standards of public, private and civil society service delivery and sustainable social, economic and political impact.