Collection of questionnaire interviews carried out as part of the GCRF Drugs and (dis)order project in the borderlands of Nangarhar and Nimroz, Afghanistan. The purpose of the interviews was to explore the production, trade and movement of several key commodities ‒ legal and illegal ‒ like minerals, drugs, fertilizer, transit goods and fuel, and the impact on the political and economic stability of borderlands. Nangarhar borders Pakistan and Nimroz borders Iran and Pakistan. The production, processing and consumption of illicit drugs is just one of a set of activities and means of livelihood in these borderland areas; and often only one of many that are deemed illegal. Therefore, the research adopted an approach that "talked around drugs not about drugs", thereby positioning the illicit drugs economy within broader questions about the livelihoods and the political economy of those living in these border areas and avoiding the kind of direct questions that often lead to the kind of aggrandizement, denial and the leveling of accusations of drugs trafficking at political opponents that has been seen in much of the official and scholarly literature.Drugs & (dis)order is a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project generating new evidence on how to transform illicit drug economies into peace economies in Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar. By 2030, more than 50% of the world’s poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected states. And many of today’s armed conflicts are fuelled by illicit drug economies in borderland regions. Trillions of dollars have been spent on the War on Drugs, but securitised approaches have failed. In fact, they often increase state fragility and adversely affect the health and livelihoods of communities and households. In light of these failures, there’s increasing recognition that drug policies need to be more pro-poor and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But the evidence base for this policy reform is patchy, politicised and contested. Drugs & (dis)order is helping to generate pro-poor policy solutions to transform illicit economies into peace economies. To do this we will: (1) Generate a robust evidence base on illicit drug economies and their effects on armed conflict, public health and livelihoods. (2) Identify new approaches and policy solutions to build more inclusive development and sustainable livelihoods in drugs affected contexts. (3) Build a global network of researchers and institutions in Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar and the UK to continue this work.

Interviews used a structured questionnaire form and were carried out by researchers of the Organization for Sustainable Development and Research (OSDR). Interviews were held with all respondents while they were at work, since holding interviews in the household compound can become subject to interruptions. Research sites were selected based on (i) the major official and unofficial border crossings in Nangarhar and Nimroz; (ii) the primary points of production for each of the commodities being studied that originated in Afghanistan; and (iii) the location of any wholesale markets, with the objective of mapping the supply chains for each commodity. Then imagery analysis was conducted to assess the current activity of trade in each site, and where possible to trace supply chains back to further locations that might be of interest. The focus of data collection was on people involved in the day-to-day activities of extraction, transport and trade of each of the commodities being studied and in each of the research site identified, therefore interviewing traders, transporters and border control officials. To circumvent the inherent problems associated with researching an illegal or underground activity, the data collection focused on household livelihood strategies: how these individuals earned a living and how the circumstances that shaped it had changed over time and why. Discussions with respondents focused on their direct experience rather than on events or phenomena over a wider geographic area, where answers become increasingly speculative. Also key informants were interviewed, being individuals who had lived in a particular research site for an extended period of time and had intimate knowledge of the history, political-economy and events that shaped that location. Due to problems of access and the male composition of the research team, all respondents were male. Preference was given to key informants of 60-70 years of age, as most recollect back to the time of King Mohammed Zahir Shah in the 1950s and 1960s. For the four categories of interviewees ‒ key informants, traders, transporters and officials ‒ a separate question list was developed, and therefore separate data files exist.