The Feinstein International Center recently has an indepth report based on extensive field interviews and perceptions of humanitarian action in Afghanistan. The paper highlights critical issues affecting the provision of humanitarian action and suggests how they could, at least partially, be redressed.

The Afghan Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC) produces useful reports on Afghan perceptions, including 'Fight poverty to end insecurity: Afghan perceptions of insecurity', published in Feb. 2009, which says 63 per cent of Afghans believe the security situation in their communities has worsened since 2004.

The think tank International Crisis Group has lots of useful information about Afghanistan's conflict past and present.

The Save the Children site has plenty of facts and figures on children in Afghanistan.

UNICEF also has useful background information.

Another good site is Pajhwok Afghan News, the country's largest local news service. The news is broad-based and some of the reporters benefit from a wealth of local contacts, but inaccuracies sometimes pop up. Note that you have to pay for access some of the material. The service runs stories in Dari, English and Pashto.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an international journalism organisation, carries well written features on the country.

Afghanistan Online says it is the biggest and most visited Afghan website. Afgha.com carries news from major outlets and allows people interested in Afghanistan to chat.

For Afghan feminism, go to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, which was founded in 1977 by women intellectuals. The organisation, which supports women's rights and education, decries the "fundamentalists" it says are still in power in Afghanistan.

This article by Ali A. Jalali, Interior Minister of Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005, is an informed take on recent events. He is now a professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University in the United States.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR's Afghanistan page has useful statistics on refugees and internally displaced, as well as reports on efforts to reintegrate returning refugees.

The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, (ACBAR), has published a report saying that around $20 billion of the aid pledged since the fall of the Taliban has yet to be distributed, while 40 percent of the money delivered comes back to donor countries in consultants' fees and expat pay.

Both ACBAR and Human Rights Watch have raised grave concerns about the numbers of civilians affected by the conflict.

For information on demining see the Landmine Monitor's 2009 report on Afghanistan.