Home / Projects & Publications
Projects are commissioned by political foundations, federal ministries, implementing agencies and research institutes. Each is scoped against the compliance framework before it is accepted.
Current projects
A standing observation of administrative practice at provincial level, reported quarterly with an explicit account of what the evidence does and does not support.
since 2025Commissioned by: Political foundationThe commissioning institution needed to know how administrative authority is actually exercised in the provinces, not how it is formally designated. Published designations had ceased to track practice, and direct enquiry was neither safe nor lawful.
The project was scoped so that no finding would depend on contact with any person inside the country.
Dari- and Pashto-language reporting, official publications and the documented public record are collected continuously and read against each other. Structured consultation with former officials now outside the country supplies context that the record alone does not carry.
Each quarterly report states, for every finding, the streams that support it and the confidence level attached. Where the evidence supports only a question, the report says so rather than resolving it.
A four-year baseline against which later change can be measured, and a documented method that the commissioning institution can hand to a successor without loss.
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Afghanistan
to be inserted All endorsements must be reviewed and signed off by the Compliance Officer before publication.
A structured reading of legal gazettes, published judgments and official statements against reported practice, and an account of the gap between them.
since 2025Commissioned by: Federal ministryFormal law and judicial conduct diverge, and the extent of the divergence matters for decisions taken in Germany. The commissioning ministry needed an assessment that rests on the public record alone, so that it can be cited without exposing a source.
Legal gazettes and published judgments are read in Persian as they appear. Official statements are recorded with their date and channel. Reported practice is collected separately and never merged into the documentary stream.
The two streams are then compared. Where they agree, the finding is firm. Where they diverge, the divergence is itself the finding, and the report sets out what can and cannot be concluded from it.
A continuously maintained record of the formal legal position, and a documented account of where practice departs from it.
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Iran
to be inserted All endorsements must be reviewed and signed off by the Compliance Officer before publication.
An analysis of documented return movements and the policy decisions driving them, read across both country portfolios rather than either alone.
since 2024Commissioned by: Implementing agencyReturn movements are recorded on one side of the border and felt on the other. An analysis confined to a single country portfolio systematically loses the connection between the decision and its effect.
Official statements, Urdu- and English-language reporting and the documented movement record are read together with the Afghanistan provincial baseline. Indicators are defined so that a change in pace is visible before it is reported as such.
The compliance screen is applied to the movement data before any analysis begins: no individual, household or route is identifiable in any output.
An indicator set the commissioning agency uses for its own planning, and a cross-portfolio reading that neither country desk had before.
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Afghanistan
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Pakistan
to be inserted All endorsements must be reviewed and signed off by the Compliance Officer before publication.
The internal project that keeps the Hybrid Analysis Methodology and the analyst network usable, including the consent and protection framework under which analysts work.
since 2024Commissioned by: Own investmentA method that depends on native-language analysis and structured expert consultation only works if the network behind it is maintained deliberately. Left to accumulate, such a network becomes both thinner and less safe over time.
Analysts are recruited against declared expertise, not against location. The consent framework is renewed rather than assumed, and every analyst can withdraw a contribution up to the point of Compliance Officer sign-off.
The methodology itself is versioned. When a rule changes, the change is dated and the outputs produced under the previous version keep their own record.
A documented methodology with a version history, and a network that can be described to a commissioning institution without describing any individual in it.
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Afghanistan
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Iran
to be insertedSenior Analyst, Pakistan
to be inserted All endorsements must be reviewed and signed off by the Compliance Officer before publication.
Placeholder projects. Titles, periods and commissioning institutions to be supplied by Avesta. Commissioners are named only where the commissioning institution has agreed to be named.
Publications
Reports, policy briefs and concept notes from Avesta Regional Research. Organised by country portfolio and by thematic area.
No publication is posted without Compliance Officer sign-off confirming that no source-identifying information is present in the document or its abstract. Where a document is not publicly available for compliance reasons, a copy may be requested.
IR · Iran — Rule of law
A review of legal gazettes, published judgments and official statements against reported practice. The brief examines where formal law and judicial conduct diverge and what can be established from the public record alone.
IR · Iran — Civil society
An assessment of the operating conditions for independent organisation. Circulated on request only; the published abstract omits detail that could narrow the field of possible sources.
AF · Afghanistan — Governance
An assessment of administrative practice at provincial level, drawn from Dari and Pashto sources and structured consultation with former officials. The paper sets out where the evidence supports firm findings and where it does not, and argues that the distinction is itself a finding.
PK · Pakistan — Migration
An analysis of documented return movements and the policy decisions driving them, read across both country portfolios. Includes indicators for monitoring further shifts.
AF · Afghanistan — Governance
A methodology paper setting out how third-party monitoring can be designed to withstand institutional audit where no physical presence is possible. Forthcoming.
AF · Afghanistan — Human rights
A structured review of the available evidence on the position of women, with explicit confidence ratings for each finding and a statement of what the evidence base does not permit.
AF · Afghanistan — Political risk
A concept note proposing a shared indicator set across the three country portfolios, with thresholds and reporting triggers. Intended as a basis for discussion with commissioning institutions.
PK · Pakistan — Rule of law
An examination of judicial independence and constitutional practice through the documentary record of courts and legislature.
Series assignment is editorial, not a difference in standard. Every output in every series carries its evidentiary basis, its confidence level and its declared limitations, and none is released without Compliance Officer sign-off.
We are glad to set out how a specific question could be addressed within our compliance framework, and what a deliverable would look like. Initial conversations are without obligation.
Get in touch info@avesta-research.com