Pashtoon Atif was appointed by H. E. the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in June 2021 as the Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency.
Mr. Atif brings with him wealth of experiences he has accumulated in his professional career over the past nearly two decades, during which he worked for various international organizations including the United Nations Development Program, USAID and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization both in Afghanistan and aboard.
Most recently, Mr. Atif served as the Afghanistan Country Director for GoodWeave International, a Washington DC-based non-governmental organization that works to end child labor in global supply chains. Prior to that job, Mr. Atif worked for various USAID-funded programs that were aimed at promoting stabilization, community development and good governance at the both national and subnational levels. During his career, Mr. Atif has had the opportunity to manage projects in various sectors including the promotion of good governance and community development, WASH, education, capacity building, support for internally displaced people and reintegration of ex-combatants. In all these roles, Mr. Atif has demonstrated professionalism, dedication and integrity which resulted in his successive promotions.
In 2006, Cooperazione Internazionale, an Italian International NGO, offered Mr. Atif a full-time position in Sudan where he managed various large and small-scale programs, mostly in Darfur region. Later, as an independent consultant, Mr. Atif traveled across Europe and the United States to provide consulting services to various organizations about the political, social and economic situation of Afghanistan.
Mr. Atif holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK. He is grateful to Sherman for all the help and support he recieved over the years when he was at Tufts and Fletcher.