TY - JOUR

T1 - Building energy institutions in a conflict zone: Interventions by international organisations in Afghanistan

AU - Fahimi, Abdullah

AU - Upham, Paul

AU - Pflitsch, Gesa

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - How do international development organisations develop institutional capacity in conflict zones? Here we take a descriptive, topological perspective on the question, using the case of Afghanistan. For twenty years prior to the capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021 the international community directed substantial resources to Afghanistan, seeking to build a democratic state. Here we examine selected, energy-related aspects of those institution-building processes, taking the country as a case study of institutional development for energy and other transitions that is explicitly driven by particular values. We use the transition topology approach to map energy-related institutional development over two decades. We find that this institutional development can be categorized in terms of three main themes: development of a regulatory framework for the energy sector; privatisation of energy systems; and women's empowerment in terms of knowledge, skills and engagement in energy sector provisioning. The case contributes to an understanding of the types of institutional changes that transnational actors seek to induce, how they do this, and what types of outcomes can be achieved.

AB - How do international development organisations develop institutional capacity in conflict zones? Here we take a descriptive, topological perspective on the question, using the case of Afghanistan. For twenty years prior to the capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021 the international community directed substantial resources to Afghanistan, seeking to build a democratic state. Here we examine selected, energy-related aspects of those institution-building processes, taking the country as a case study of institutional development for energy and other transitions that is explicitly driven by particular values. We use the transition topology approach to map energy-related institutional development over two decades. We find that this institutional development can be categorized in terms of three main themes: development of a regulatory framework for the energy sector; privatisation of energy systems; and women's empowerment in terms of knowledge, skills and engagement in energy sector provisioning. The case contributes to an understanding of the types of institutional changes that transnational actors seek to induce, how they do this, and what types of outcomes can be achieved.

KW - Institutional change

KW - Transition topology

KW - International development organisations

KW - Foreign aid

KW - Energy sector of Afghanistan

KW - Fragile and conflict-affected countries

KW - Environmental Governance

KW - Sustainability Governance

U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103711

DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103711

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 116

JO - Energy Research and Social Science

JF - Energy Research and Social Science

SN - 2214-6296

M1 - 103711

ER -