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This Thurs @ 1:00 PM ET - Bribes, Kickbacks, and Diversion: Aid in Conflict Zones and Authoritarian Regimes
Experts discuss the shortcomings of humanitarian aid.
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Before the Trump administration cut most aid to Afghanistan in 2025, the United States was the country’s largest donor, providing more than $3 billion in humanitarian and development assistance after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) finds that much of this aid was diverted by the Taliban through favoritism, restrictions on NGOs, staff extortion, and alleged collusion with senior UN officials demanding kickbacks. The report concludes that the global aid system for countries under hostile regimes is fundamentally broken, costly, opaque, and riddled with layers of agencies and subcontractors that inflate expenses, obscure accountability, and invite corruption.

What lessons can be drawn from Afghanistan and from aid delivery in other conflict zones such as South Sudan, Syria, and beyond? Join us for a panel discussion examining how aid systems do or do not manage diversion and conflict-sensitivity risks, the factors shaping these approaches, and potential strategies for improving them at both the donor and implementer levels.

September 2025
4
1:00 PM ET
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Join us for a timely and important discussion with:

Joseph Windrem

Joseph Windrem is the director of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) Lessons Learned Program. He previously served as a senior analyst in the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and as a staff member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Jordan Kane

Jordan Kane is senior analyst in SIGAR's Lessons Learned Program. She is a conflict and governance advisor with extensive field experience in four conflict/post-conflict environments: Afghanistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Yemen. She specializes in governance, stabilization, and monitoring and evaluation.

Audrey Bottjen

Audrey Bottjen is an international aid and conflict sensitivity consultant with 20 years of experience in conflict sensitivity, transition, peacebuilding, and recovery. She has held strategic, analytical, programmatic, and operational roles with NGOs, the UN, donor governments, research institutions, and multilateral organizations.

Adam Weinstein (Moderator)

Adam Weinstein is deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Quincy Institute. He previously worked for KPMG’s international trade practice. Adam’s current research focuses on security, trade, and rule of law in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East. He has conducted extensive research travel in Pakistan, Iraq, and the greater Middle East.

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