The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has been selected by the government to act as its key co-ordinating body for cultural affairs. UNESCO sees its role as one of harmonising the efforts of the numerous NGOs and agencies that are assisting the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s education, scientific and cultural sectors. As such, it hopes to be able to rationalise the work of these organisations and support government efforts to facilitate and prioritise it. According to Louise Haxthausen, programme specialist with UNESCO, their work has a symbolic presence in Afghanistan and as such can play a pivotal role in promoting the different areas of arts that require assistance. It also supplies information to donors and specialists working in the field of culture.

The government has also established a temporary agency (to close in 2004) known as the Afghanistan Reconstruction and Development Services (ARDS) to attract, guide, facilitate and co-ordinate assistance. AACA’s main role is to approve contracts from international agencies and foreign governments. However, since the government is slow to disperse funds many NGOs prefer to work independently and inevitably end up duplicating each other’s work. This is changing as the need to strengthen the role of the central government is vital.

Non-governmental co-ordination efforts are spearheaded by two agencies. The Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) was established in 1988 and comprises a membership of both international and Afghan NGOs. It has strict membership qualifications that some small foreign NGOs and few Afghan NGOs can fulfill, such as having a board of directors and minimum donor funds. ACBAR currently has a membership of 77 in Afghanistan. It has weekly security meetings and special interest groups meet every two weeks. These are attended by members and interested parties and often used by other organisations such as the UN or the government to inform the NGO community of new events. The Afghan Centre at Kabul University (ACKU) houses numerous documents that could be useful as a first step in research. The Afghanistan NGO Co-ordinating Bureau (ANCB) also assists and represents its membership in the national and international community. ANCB levies no membership fees and although it would like to offer seminars and training, lack of funds does not permit this.

Not surprisingly, the ‘invasion of NGOs’ which followed the Bonn Agreement of 2001 overwhelmed the fledgling Afghan administration, indeed guidelines have only very recently been set up to monitor and control their activities. In her scathing indictment of this development Nancy Hatch Dupree calls it ‘....a zoo, and all the animals are outside their cages, clawing one another. It is very sad. Although co-ordination and co-operation are supposed to be the name of the game, it's just everyone establishing their territory. Some of the older established NGOs are struggling to contend with these new NGOs that are coming with lots of money in their pockets and just running roughshod over them’ (Asia Source, 8 July 2002, http://www.asiasource.org/arts/nancydupree.cfm).

Dupree also maintains that the ‘flood of NGOs entering Kabul and salivating’ has inculcated Afghans with an ‘aid mentality’, with the result that many with foreign contacts now think almost exclusively in terms of handouts. ‘As a result a once proud people have been reduced to being beggars’.

That said, some excellent work is being done by a core group of agencies in the cultural field. Perhaps the most palpable achievements to date have been those in the media field, where the French NGO AÏNA has led the way in training press and broadcasting personnel, promoting film especially in the provinces and disseminating news articles and photographs. The BBC World Service Trust has also been asked to assist the government in setting up its long term media plans. The Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH) has since 1994 acted as a watchdog throughout the turmoil of the years and was one of the few cultural bodies working in the countryside. Today SPACH is working as an advocacy and educational body to promote the value and need for protection of the heritage, both within the country and abroad. The Goethe-Institut works to encourage exchanges between artists and the sharing of skills. The Foundation for Culture and Civil Society (FCCS) is a new organisation which has a mandate to disseminate information about the arts and culture.