This case study examines the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the provision of relief and rehabilitation assistance to Afghan refugees in Pakistan and through 'cross border operations' from Pakistan in those areas of Afghanistan which were outside the control of the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. The period covered by the study is from 1979, when Afghan refugees began crossing in unprecedented numbers into Iranl and Pakistan, until 1992 when the study was undertaken. The fall of the Najibullah regime and the movement of Mujahideen forces into Kabul in effect brought to an end the conflict between the Mujahideen opposition and the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul which had begun in earnest thirteen years earlier during 1979. though fighting has since continued between different factions within the Mujahideen.

This case study is one of a series being prepared as pan of a larger study on the changing role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the provision of relief and rehabilitation assistance. It is now widely recognised that NGOs play a much enhanced role in relief and rehabilitation operations compared to ten or fifteen years ago. However, the rate of growth of NGOs in this field of activity and the factors contributing to such growth have not previously been studied in a comprehensive manner.  The primary objectives of the overall study, which is funded by the UK Overseas Development Administration, are therefore to:

1. quantify the relief and rehabilitation resources handled by NGOs since 1979, so as to analyse both the extent to which the role of NGOs undertaken in the provision of such ssistance has increased the the ways in which the functions undertaken by NGOs have changed;
2. make a preliminary examination of the practical and policy implications of the increased role of NGOs in relief operations both for donor organisations that use NGOs as channels for the provision of relief and rehabilitation assistance and for the NGOs themselves