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Our Services

Assess, Transform, Reach (ATR) is the leading provider of third-party monitoring services in Afghanistan. We provide five streams of complimentary services to our clients.

Monitoring & Evaluation

ATR monitors and evaluates projects with proven, rigorous, and comprehensive methods.

Polling & Surveys

ATR is a pioneer in phone polling crisis, media outreach, and market research for private sectors and donors.

 

Strategic Advisory

ATR provides strategic planning sessions, peer reviews, and tailored coaching services.

Capacity Development

We use a wide range of tools to build human capital and measure success.

 

Socioeconomic Research

We support clients in understanding the social, economic, and political contexts in which they work.

 

Monitoring & Evaluation

Global Polio Eradication Initiative - Pilot program evaluation

ATR supports UNICEF’s polio efforts through independent third-party monitoring, providing UNICEF with triangulated and validated field-level information and identifying critical program performance issues, thereby allowing UNICEF to make informed decisions and adjustments. 

Maternal and Child Health Handbook - Pilot program evaluation

ATR evaluated the impact of using a single vaccination handbook rather than separate documents for each vaccination as part of UNICEF’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook program. The result of ATR’s mixed-methods evaluation were positive and led to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health’s decision to implement the vaccination handbook at the national level. 

Girls Can Code

The “Girls Can Code!” program is a Womanity Foundation project aimed at teaching web development to 11th and 12th grade girls. ATR assessed the potential of the program to address the needs of the labor market and provide access to employment for females in Afghanistan, providing recommendations for future replication of the project. ATR’s evaluation of the program featured a review of the course materials, a phone survey and focus group discussion with students, and in-depth interview with potential employers.

Afghan Sustainable Water Supply Sanitation Project - Third-party monitoring

ATR conducted a survey of 485 wells installed in 13 provinces under the USAID-funded WATSAN project. The purpose of the project was to assess the quality of the wells installed and the engagement of target groups under this project and to verify existing data. 

Education Support Program - Construction Monitoring

ATR verified the quality of construction of 14 schools funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Afghan Ministry of Education. ATR also followed up on an earlier report on school construction for the program to ensure that previously identified problems had been resolved.

Rural Access Improvement Project (RAIP) — Impact Evaluation

ATR assessed the extent to which road infrastructure and small-scale rural livelihood projects for women in four provinces in northern Afghanistan resulted in meaningful changes in socioeconomic conditions for people in those provinces. ATR conducted the impact evaluation through a series of interviews, focus group discussions and a 1,600 respondent survey with control and treatment households to identify interventions with the greatest socioeconomic impact and inform policymaking and programming based on rigorously collected evidence.

Rule of Law Portfolio — Impact Evaluation

ATR evaluated the impact of six of USIP’s rule of law projects on the relationship between the formal and traditional justice sectors in Afghanistan, the quality of governance and level of accountability in the formal justice sector, the level of engagement in the Islamic legal community and the level of support for civil society in dispute resolution and access to justice. ATR conducted 14 focus group discussions and 92 key informant interviews with direct and indirect project beneficiaries as well as project stakeholders, including formal and informal justice sector actors and project implementers.

Polling & Surveys

Opinion Research for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)

ATR conducted to midline surveys aimed at understanding the local perceptions of adults in Afghanistan. The surveys were nationally representative and supplemented by qualitative field work, which provided context for the findings.

Presidential Approval Rating Survey (Moby Group)

ATR conducted the polling for the first presidential approval rating after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took office. The survey was nationally representative and featured quotas of men and women as well as both urban and rural respondents across all 34 provinces in Afghanistan.

Taliban Perception Survey (USAID)

ATR conducted in-depth qualitative and quantitative research with more than 4,200 respondents in different regions to shed light on dominant perceptions of the Taliban, state control and the role of the international community in Afghanistan. The sample, from 18 different districts, was selected so as to be representative of the country’s diverse geographic, socioeconomic, tribal and ethnic contexts.

Measuring the Behavior and Perceptions of Smartphone Users (Moby Group)7

ATR investigated the use of smartphones in Afghanistan, examining rates and conditions of ownership, typical uses of smartphones and reactions to the concept of accessing various digital media (including videos and television programs) by phone.

Strategic Advisory

ATR provides peer review and coaching services to our clients—tailored for the development of specific technical capacities—and facilitates strategic planning sessions. Through this work, ATR has led or contributed to the development of several strategies and policies for both the national governments and the United Nations.

In Afghanistan, ATR uses its expertise in several sectors to participate in and enhance policy dialogues. This has allowed ATR to leverage the depth of its experience and up-to-the-minute knowledge of conditions on the ground to help government strategies to better respond to the needs and aspirations of the population.

In Mali, ATR facilitated the internal review of the Malian Peace Building Fund’s first phase, organizing workshops on the Fund’s Theory of Change and operational arrangements to assess performance and identify the Fund’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing for focused adjustments in the second stage.

Capacity Development

Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan — Human Resource Management Training

ATR collaborated with Expertise France and the French Government’s Department of Cooperation and Culture to support the development of autonomous training capabilities for the Administrative Office of the President. ATR assisted with the reorganization of the Human Resource Directorate and guided the development of new Tashkeel and staff Terms of Reference. ATR also worked to develop the capacity of the Human Resource Directorate staff to manage human resources, particularly through establishing the ability to conceive and deliver effective training services.

Independent Directorate of Local Governance — Capacity Building Plan Design and Curriculum Development

ATR prepared and implemented a Municipal Governance Capacity Index to measure the performance of Afghan municipalities in five essential areas: financial management, strategic planning, engineering and project management, administrative reform and community outreach. ATR then developed tailored capacity building plans to address the particular needs of each municipality and provided support and guidance to DAI staff in the transfer of relevant skills over the course of the three-year project. ATR also produced a series of training curricula and modules to build capacity of municipality staff and members of the municipal advisory board on topics such as citizens’ engagement and gender equality.

Ministry of Interior Affairs — Workforce Analysis

ATR supported the civilianization of the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA). This involved: analyzing the MoIA’s organizational design, including its management structure, to improve efficiency, accountability and effectiveness; identifying the human resource skill sets the MoIA required to support police operations; codifying mandates for each organizational unit as needed to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each unit; and proposing a transitional mechanism to facilitate the smooth transfer of duties from uniformed personnel to civilian staff.

Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Irrigation Program — National and Subnational Capacity Assessment

ATR provided recommendations for targeted capacity building interventions to strengthen the managerial, administrative and technical capacities of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in managing UNICEF’s Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Irrigation Program.

Stability in Key Areas–North — Capacity Building for Local Government and Governance Entities

ATR designed and implemented a capacity building strategy for the district staff and governance bodies in several provinces in northern Afghanistan. The capacity building strategy was informed by previous research and a capacity gap assessment and the project featured extensive monitoring and evaluation.

Socioeconomic Research

ATR is an expert in the field of stabilization in Afghanistan. Drawing on the depth of our experience, ATR conducts in-depth research in some of the most insecure and challenging environments in the country. Working with different institutions to develop strategic and practical recommendations, we work to improve cohesion in difficult areas where faith in the Government and public institutions is extremely low.

Citizen’s Charter Afghanistan Project — Conflict and Fragility Study

ATR provided in-depth analysis of the conflict and political dynamics in Citizen’s Charter locations in both rural and urban areas and examined the role of Community Development Councils in working with districts and provinces to build social cohesion at the local level. The work shed light on the contextual dynamics of local conflict and the relationship between service delivery and state legitimacy. The study featured two surveys: one of over 4,000 adults living in the relevant communities and one featuring 1,040 government service delivery providers spread across all 24 pilot districts. The surveys were supplemented by qualitative case studies to provide in-depth understanding of the political and social dynamics in the areas where the Citizen’s Charter is being implemented.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Trade Finance — Market Study

ATR evaluated the demand for financial products aimed at supporting imports and exports among SMEs in Afghanistan to help the Afghan Credit Guarantee Foundation determine which trade finance products should be designed and offered to Afghan SMEs involved in international trade.

Afghan Children Read — Assessment of Barriers to Literacy

ATR supported the design and conducted the fieldwork in Nangarhar and Herat provinces for this study of Creative International’s Afghan literacy program. The study included 8 focus group discussions with teachers and caregivers and 368 interviews with caregivers who read books for their children and/or whose children read by themselves.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) — Policy Study

ATR conducted research in order to assess: the extent to which the Afghan government and the international community met their aid effectiveness commitments from the past four international conferences on Afghanistan (Kabul 2010, Tokyo 2012, London 2014, Brussels 2016); the actual amount of aid disbursed to the Afghan government and the extent to which this fulfilled promises made by the international community; the nature and effectiveness of spending by both the Afghan government and the international community directly; the volume of aid and how it changed from 2010 to 2016.

Afghanistan Cashmere Value Chain — Feasibility Study

ATR collaborated with OXFAM and PUR Projet to design and implement a study of the long-term viability of the cashmere value chains in Herat, Balkh and Kabul. The study assessed the impact of cashmere on the livelihoods of producers and the extent to which it may improve economic opportunities for women.

Mali Justice Project — Mapping of the Informal Justice System

ATR analyzed two large-scale surveys of users and actors in the informal justice system in Mali for the USAID-funded Mali Justice Project. The analysis assessed the level of knowledge, access and usage of the informal justice system and provided recommendations to increase linkages between the formal and informal justice sectors.

Humanitarian Needs in Hard to Access Areas — Field Data Collection

ATR collected data for the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNOCHA in five under-researched provinces in Afghanistan. The purpose of the project was to analyze the differences in humanitarian needs between easy-to-access areas and hard-to-access areas. ATR conducted 50 focus group discussions, 40 bilateral interview, 20 rounds of direct observation and a baseline survey with 10,000 respondents.

Afghanistan’s Extractive Industries Sector — Conflict and Community Resilience Assessment

ATR conducted three site-specific conflict and fragility assessments for the World Bank and delivered recommendations regarding the structure and membership of grievance redress mechanisms. This encompassed the institutional arrangements, socially-inclusive outreach strategy and procedures related to various categories of grievances to be addressed. The assessments also included recommendations for mitigating conflict and enhancing community resilience and equity in sharing the benefits of natural resource extraction.

Humanitarian Needs in Hard to Access Areas — Field Data Collection

ATR collected data for the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNOCHA in five under-researched provinces in Afghanistan. The purpose of the project was to analyze the differences in humanitarian needs between easy-to-access areas and hard-to-access areas. ATR conducted 50 focus group discussions, 40 bilateral interview, 20 rounds of direct observation and a baseline survey with 10,000 respondents.

Explore our sectors

Migration and forced displacement have become among the most challenging and high-profile issues facing the international community in recent years. ATR has been involved in supporting informed policies and durable solutions with work across all five of its main services. Learn more

ATR’s staff brings a wealth of experience in urban development. Whether at the ministerial or community level, ATR understands the different factors that contribute to working towards a more equitable urban and rural development. Learn more.

ATR’s credibility in conflict and governance has been built through years of delivering quality outputs and the wealth of experience among its experts, allowing for analyses of events at the national level and an understanding of their local implications. Learn more

ATR has been involved in nurturing the civil society sector that it may better represent the interests of the population and develop into a legitimate and effective partner in Afghanistan’s governance. Learn more

Health and healthcare are intimately related to their social, cultural, economic, geographic and political context. ATR provides the deep understanding of these factors as well as the health specific experience and expertise to help clients tailor their programs to most effectively serve their target populations. Learn more

ATR has been engaged in mapping, assessing, and building the capacity of local education departments to better involve the community and provide stable, quality education to communities. Learn more.  

ATR assesses existing skills and opportunities in the labor market to help organizations tailor training and other interventions. Special consideration is given to nontraditional, emerging sectors as well as the effects that age, gender, and displacement have on the labor market. Learn more.