Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) was established in 1990 to work towards serving vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the sectors of education, peacebuilding, community development and community health, in rural areas of Afghanistan.  Its participatory and community-based approaches to development single out SDO as one of the leading peace and development agencies in Afghanistan.

The name of the organisation is taken from the poet Hazrat Hakeem Sanayee, whose profound scholary and literary achievements and his knowledge of Islam are reflected in SDO’s work towards education and respect for Islamic values, through the promotion of non-violence and the positive culture of Afghan people.

The community-based peacebuilding programmes of SDO aim to strengthen the societal structures that can enable the constructive transformation of conflicts. By addressing the root causes of conflict, they promote stability, justice, goodwill and cooperation among members of the community. At the same time, SDO’s peacebuilding programme paves the way for development work to be undertaken.

They have worked towards community-based peacebuilding, in order to, amongst other projects, promote peace between host communities and refugees returning from Pakistan and promote peaceful co-existence between different ethnic groups. They have worked towards this through the creation of peace shuras, conflict resolution workshops, peace committees and peace radio.

SDO’s other programmes also work in the areas of basic child education, adult literacy, health education for women and HIV/AIDs harm prevention programme, as they believe there can be no peace without development and no development without peace.