Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai
Senior Fellow, Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program
Post-Conflict Reconstruction | Asia: Southeast | Afghanistan | Humanitarian and Post-Conflict Infrastructure Development and Stabilization | DDR | DIAG
Phone: (202) 429-3874
E-mail: mstanekzai@usip.org
Languages: Pashtoo and Dari
M. Masoom Stanekzai has served as advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and as vice chair of the Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, a group responsible for the disbandment of illegal armed groups, since 2005. From 2002 to 2004, he was minister of telecommunication/information and communications technology in the Afghan Transitional Government. During this time, he developed and implemented a major reform and restructuring program that helped the sector to flourish as one of the success stories of post-conflict reconstruction in the country.
Prior to that, he was director of the Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy Conservation in Afghanistan. He has 25 years of substantive experience in design and management, including the telecom sector, humanitarian and community development, renewable energy, governance, security sector reform and other areas. He has worked with government entities, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, NGOs, the UN, and private sectors in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Most recently, he completed a draft regulatory framework for the operation of private security companies in Afghanistan (the cabinet adopted his plan).
Masoom earned a Master’s in philosophy of engineering for sustainable development from Cambridge University and a Master’s in business management from Preston University. He has a B.A.s from the Kabul Telecom Institute and is a graduate of the Kabul Military University.
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