The British Council has had a long association with Afghanistan, including an office in Kabul and an English Teaching Centre until 1980.

The Council has been involved in start-up programmes since 2002, working closely with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Afghan Unit and the British Embassy. From July 2004, there has been a UK-appointed Director (Cultural Attache) working initially from within the British Embassy.

The main focus of our work in Afghanistan is English language support, for which there is an overwhelming demand. Future projects will involve consultants to support curriculum development for the education sector and to improve the English skills of senior government officials.  

We are also deploying our Development Services project managment expertise by assisting in the reform process, initially by managing a project to reform selection procedures and grading structures for the Civil Service Commission, a reform process stipulated in the Bonn Agreement itself.

Other areas of importance include governance, and in particular support to the development of women leaders in the period running up to the elections, and an arts programme is planned once capacity is available.

We also administer the Chevening scholarship scheme for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This year there were 14 successful candidates for masters level courses.