BRD’s vision is a sustainable Afghan society. Accordingly, the organisation pursues four key programmes fostering human rights, civil society, government, and the local economy, while capacity building is the central theme across all of the programmes.

A major part of BRD’s strategy is to work in collaboration with the local community, partners, international and local subject matter experts and volunteers.

BRD’s approach is “rights-based”, i.e. normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights, acknowledging that poverty most often stems from the denial of human rights through discrimination, marginalization or unequal access to education, health or resources and those living in poverty are often more easily subjected to further human rights violations.

In order to raise the level of accountability in the development process, BRD identifies claim-holders (and their entitlements) and duty-holders (and their obligations).

At the centre of BRD’s efforts lies the individual and its’ rights, hence focussing on beneficiaries as the owner o rights and directors of development. The goal is to give people the power, capacities, capabilities and access needed to change their own lives, improve their own communities and influence their own destinies, with a particular focus on discrimination, equality, equity and vulnerable groups

Due to this approach, participation is essential for BRD’s programmes, ensuring a high degree of accessibility including access to development processes, institutions, information and redress or complaints mechanisms.

While BRD is seeking to empower local participants, they explicitly guard against simply reinforcing existing power imbalances between, for example, women and men, landowners and peasants, and workers and employers.