One finding of the Asia Foundation’s annual public opinion survey, released on Tuesday, was that Afghans are slightly more “optimistic” than in 2018 and feel that the country is “moving in the right direction.” One significant explanation for this was the prospect of peace.

While some results remained fairly similar to those of 2018—such as views on corruption or satisfaction with “justice and dispute resolution” --the number of people who are optimistic that the country is “going in the right direction” increased this year to 36.1% from 32.8 % in 2018.

In the Asia Foundation survey, of those Afghans who said they feel the country is moving in the wrong direction, 74.7% cite “insecurity/crime,” 41.5% say the “economy,” and 31.1% say the “state of governance. “

In this program host Yaser Abrar discusses the topic with the following guests.

Abdullah Ahmadzai, head of the Asia Foundation

Ahmad Behzad, former MP