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Class 21 (2022-2024)

Mustafa Rezaie, Afghanistan

Duke University – Master in International Development Policy

Planning and Policy | Finance and Accounting | Monitoring and Evaluation | Peacebuilding

Mustafa Rezaie has over 10 years of experience in financial management, grants administration, compliance, and monitoring, spanning both government and non-profit sectors. His multidisciplinary expertise enables him to design and implement initiatives that address complex challenges by conducting financial analysis, optimizing resource allocation, mitigating risks, and using data-driven analysis for strategic decision-making.

As a dedicated cross-sector specialist, Mustafa earned his Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) from Duke University in 2024. Before Duke, he completed a Master’s in Finance and Accounting from Balkh University in Afghanistan and a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of Pune, India. His educational journey demonstrates a deep commitment to financial management and analysis, enabling him to navigate complex financial landscapes and ensure effective resource allocation and aid management.

In 2022, Mustafa was selected for the prestigious Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Fellowship, during which he demonstrated his skills and experience in investigating how to bridge the gap between short-term humanitarian aid and long-term sustainability in Afghanistan. He conducted a comprehensive policy analysis on the challenges of international aid in Afghanistan, identified opportunities to enhance aid effectiveness through community-led solutions, and recommended potential policy solutions. Furthermore, he published an article in the Sanford Journal of Public Policy investigating how participatory budgeting (PB) works as an innovative approach, and how it enhances democratic citizen engagement and promotes SDGs in public decision-making and public budget implementation.

Mustafa is passionate about his home country and cares deeply about underserved communities in Afghanistan. He actively advocates for Afghan women’s rights to education, work, and freedom, while these rights are currently denied under Taliban rule. Mustafa has delivered numerous speeches on women’s challenges and ethnic minority issues in Afghanistan, including presentations at Duke, Elon, and William Peace universities. In these talks, he discusses strategies to raise awareness and tackle these pressing issues. While at Duke, he published an article titled Promoting Education in a Conflict Zone, recommended policy solutions to address illiteracy through locally-led, community-based education (CBE), engaging community elders and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), even under Taliban control. In 2022, to transform his thought into action, he and his community members launched a pilot CBE program in Jaghori District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan where over 60 students—mainly girls—learn English, science, and vocational skills despite the Taliban’s ban on formal education. This initiative has been successfully ongoing since 2022, where it has been managed locally with very limited resources with financial support from Afghan diaspora communities residing in the USA, Australia, and Europe.

Currently, Mustafa works with PartnersGlobal as a Finance Manager, where he leverages his extensive experience in financial management, grants administration, and strategic analysis to support two projects aimed at strengthening democratic institutions and supporting civil society organizations in Serbia and Latin America. Drawing on his prior experience, he conducts financial analyses to ensure that programs achieve their deliverables on time, effectively, and efficiently. His role focuses on enhancing financial sustainability and grant administration by optimizing resource allocations, assessing risks, and reinforcing internal controls.

In 2018, before joining PartnersGlobal, and driven by his interest in grassroots peacebuilding, Mustafa joined the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), an international NGO, as an Area Monitoring, Evaluation, and Compliance Manager. In this role, he collaborated with partners to design and monitor sustainable rural development initiatives by enhancing the capacity of small-scale enterprises and CSOs. His contributions included conducting needs assessments, project evaluations, and contextual analyses, leading to the creation of a pilot project that combined humanitarian and development aid for long-term impact. This approach shifted project objectives from short-term to sustainable, community-driven solutions aimed at enhancing resilience. He also led a Grassroots Organization Capacity Assessment, identifying challenges and opportunities within local CSOs and small enterprises, and designed project activities to address these through community-led approaches, harmonizing aid to improve coordination, and compliance, and reduce costs.

Before joining ACTED, Mustafa worked with government organizations, focusing on top-down strategies. He contributed to the Ministry of Finance’s Treasury Department, where he helped implement the Afghanistan Financial Management Information System (AFMIS) and worked to close the gap in aligning national priorities with aid strategies. His analysis of development grants and performance monitoring identified gaps and led to corrective recommendations that reduced operational and compliance risks. Additionally, he developed financial models and analyzed historical data to ensure budget compliance, supporting multi-year planning and forecasting processes. He also initiated a capacity-building program for civil servants in northern Afghanistan that addressed identified challenges and enhanced their skills in financial management.

Mustafa’s long-term goal is to work with an international organization like the UN and the World Bank to develop sustainable, community-driven solutions in Afghanistan. Ultimately, he aims to unite Afghan voices locally and globally through a network of peace fellows, raising funds to tackle Afghanistan’s challenges in a professional, sustainable manner.