With ouster of Taliban from government and increase of international engagement, somewhat development has taken place in various areas. One of these areas is the capacity in government entities, although much remains to be achieved. Despite progress, capacity among civil servants remain low creating a big challenge as Afghanistan is moving into the transition period and the international military and technical and financial assistances are diminishing.

The accurate figure for illiteracy in Afghanistan is not available but for sure it is around 70 percent. This is due to the long term conflict in the country that has reversely impacted all economic, social, political and educational sectors. If the condition had been better, Afghanistan would be one of the most educated, skilled and professional nations of the world.

However, Afghanistan has still a long way to go. Most of the government offices suffer due to low capacity of their employees. Improper education is one of the main factors behind such a condition. Lack of modern education has led to the problem of inadequate capacity in Afghanistan. In government offices, the required capacity for efficient operations is missing due to lack of professional employees.

Lack of capacity in the Afghan line ministries and provincial offices has led to poor planning of activities and implementation of development and non-development projects. Although various training programs aimed at boosting the capacity of public servants have been executed inside and outside the country, no major changes in the situation are observable and demand for foreign professional doctors, engineers, auditors and experts in banking and finance and almost all fields remain a grave need for keeping systems running in Afghanistan.

The Afghans who had opportunities to get modern education in other countries have very little practical knowledge while those with better technical education and adequate experience seek high salaries and better job environment both of which cannot be observed in government entities. With the assistance of international community, Afghanistan was expected to make some swift developments in providing civil services. However, in the last eleven years, the complaints of people about the civil servants have gone increasing. Insignificant development in this area is quite disappointing.

In defense sector too, inadequate level of literacy or illiteracy among the members of Afghan National Army and Police is hampering them from becoming a skillful force. Having capability to use modern military equipment, weaponry, tanks and war crafts is strength of a military force and Afghan security forces need to move fast towards finding such a capability.