Langer presented in-depth results of the network’s fifth national public opinion poll in Afghanistan, conducted Dec. 11-23, 2009, via face-to-face interviews with a random national sample of 1,534 Afghan adults in all 34 of the country’s provinces. The survey found a remarkable rebound in optimism among Afghans in hopes for their country’s future and in support for President Hamid Karzai, albeit with deep challenges remaining, including continued broadly negative views of the performance of U.S. and NATO forces.

The ABC World News broadcast series “Afghanistan: Where things Stand” with Diane Sawyer began airing on January 11, 2010.The broadcast research was sponsored by ABC News, the BBC and the German ARD. Coverage of the survey results was also reported in the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Canadian Press and Die Welt, among others.

As ABC reports, this year’s results find that hopes for a better future have soared in Afghanistan, bolstered by a broad rally in support for the country’s re-elected president, improved development efforts, economic gains and a softening of criticisms of the United States and NATO. But many challenges remain: complaints about official corruption are higher than ever, views of the United States’ performance remain weak and many Afghans still blame allied forces for civilian casualties.

This is the fifth installment of this broadcast. ABC News’ 2005 broadcast of its “Afghanistan: Where Things Stand” poll was recognized by the University of Iowa/Gallup Award for Excellent Journalism Using Polls and the 2005 National Council on Public Polls Excellence in Media Coverage of Polls Award. It was the first news-sponsored survey ever completed in Afghanistan.

The survey was conducted by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research (ACSOR-Surveys) from December 11 to December 23, 2009 with a random sample of 1,534 Afghan adults in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Field work was conducted by 168 interviewers in 34 supervised teams. The margin of sampling error is /- 3%. The net response rate was 86%. An analytical report and full methodology statement is available at the ABC Polling Unit .

Titled “Police Perception Survey 2009 – The Afghan Perspective,” the objective was to gather first-hand information on a variety of police related issues. The survey results can serve as a useful resource base for policy makers, opinion shapers within and outside the government, as well as the broader Afghan public. The 2009 survey forms the baseline for future annual surveys on police performance indicators and outputs. 

ACSOR reported almost half of Afghans (49%) think the police in their area are controlling crime and 42% strongly agree that the police performance has improved over the past year. Sixty-seven percent of respondents believe that if they are better trained, police performance is very likely to improve, 65% believe that it is very likely that having better knowledge of the law will lead to improvement, and 58% believe that its is very likely that an increase in pay would improve performance. 

Regarding security in general, most Afghans (80%) reported that the security situation in their area is good. 96% among those living in Kabul and surrounding provinces reported this as well. However, respondents in the East and South, as well as rural respondents in general, were less likely to rate security as good. 

The survey was conducted by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research. 5,156 randomly selected Afghans (2,827 males and 2,329 females), age 18 or older were interviewed by native Afghans across all 34 provinces of the country between July 9th and July 21st, 2009. No weighting was applied. The margin of sampling error is ± 2.5%. The response rate was 85%.

In addition to being covered by a wide variety of international news outlets such as Newsweek, AFP, Reuters and The Taipei Times the survey findings were featured on PBS News’ Online NewsHour.

Results of the survey were presented at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on February 11th by Gary Langer, Polling Director for ABC News. Coverage of the survey results has also been reported in the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the BBC and The Economist. 

The survey was conducted from December 30, 2008 to January 12, 2009 with a random sample of 1,534 Afghan adults in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Field work was conducted by 176 interviewers in 34 supervised teams. Questions covered topics including the Taliban, security, economic conditions, women’s rights, the cultivation of opium, views of the United States and its allies, among other issues. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5%. A full analysis and methodology statement are available.

The data has been put to other uses as well. ACSOR-Surveys research was cited by the Associated Press on a story about television coverage in Afghanistan, and in Canada, data was used by Canada.com in coverage of Canadian training for the Afghan National Army.