Personal background: Eng. Shir Wali Wardak, son of Khwajah Mir, was born in 1971 in Saeed Abad district, Wardak province. He is married and has seven children. He is the brother of Faruq Wardak, the current Minister of Education. His interests include sports, swimming and reading. Wardak’s first language is Pashto and he also speaks Dari, English and Urdu.

Education: After graduating from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) High School in Peshawar in 1990, Wardak earned a bachelor’s degree from the Agricultural University of Faisalabad. He also holds a master’s degree in Project Management from the University of Preston/Faisalabad University in Pakistan, which he completed in 2006. Further to this he has studied project management in a course run by the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA) organization, an Afghan national NGO.

Civil society/NGO connections: Wardak has connections with NGOs, both national and international, through his work in agriculture and development.

Previous occupation: Wardak has experience working with NGOs and the Afghan government in the agricultural sector. In 1997, he worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a Field Technician and as a Monitoring Officer for the Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility. He also worked at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAIL) as the Director of Operations of the Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development Facility (CARD-F) in 2010, where he co-managed operations and was responsible for the supervision of technical assistance and short term consultants. From 1998-2000, he acted as an agricultural advisor with Coordination of Afghan Relief (CoAR) on a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) project. Since then, he has also worked with the International Rescue Committee, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in Afghanistan, and the Agriculture, Health and Development Organization (AHDO).