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Jedburgh
01-19-2009, 04:26 PM
The Asia Foundation (http://www.asiafoundation.org/country/afghanistan/2008-poll.php) has published its detailed annual survey and a companion volume of essays:

Afghanistan 2008: A Survey of the Afghan People (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/418)

....The Asia Foundation conducted its fourth annual nationwide survey of Afghan public opinion in summer 2008. The aim, as with the other nationwide surveys that were conducted in 2006 (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/21) and 2007 (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/23) and the more limited survey in 2004 (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/force-download.php?f=%2Fresources%2Fpdfs%2Fafghanvotered 04.pdf), was to gather first-hand opinion of a large sample of Afghan citizens on a variety of contemporary governance and development-related issues such that the information generated is useful for policy makers and opinion shapers in government, the international community, and the broader Afghan public. Every effort is made to ensure that the questions asked and the information collected on public opinion is actionable and, with each passing year, these surveys have become more acceptable and wider used both as a valid and reliable barometer of public opinion in Afghanistan as well as a public policy tool....
State Building, Security and Social Change in Afghanistan: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/458)

....as with all public opinion research, the report on the survey findings often raises as many questions as it answers. Interpretation of survey data is a complex activity that requires both a thorough understanding of the historical, cultural, and contextual factors that shape public opinion in the Afghan context, and a critical assessment of the social and political factors that may motivate respondents to answer in certain ways.

To fill this important gap and render the data collected by the survey more relevant and useful for decision makers and development practitioners, The Asia Foundation has collaborated with a number of specialists who have in-depth knowledge of Afghanistan to produce the current volume as a companion piece to the main 2008 survey report. Each contributor offers considered interpretation of the survey findings in their relevant area of expertise by providing contextual analysis and drawing out issues of concern for public debate. This is the second such volume that The Asia Foundation has produced. In 2007, the Foundation published State Building, Political Progress, and Human Security in Afghanistan: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People (http://www.asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/450) as a companion volume to the 2006 survey findings.....