Anders Fänge spent many years as the director of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), which began its work in the early 1980s when the Soviet invasion had displaced millions of people. SCA became one of the largest, and most innovative and successful NGOs in Afghanistan helping hundreds of thousands of people. One of Fänge's accomplishments as director of SCA was to convince local Taliban officials to allow SCA to organize girls schools, despite an official Taliban ban.
Anders Fänge, George Soros Visiting Practioner Chair, is one of the world's most experienced and highly-regarded experts on humanitarian work. He spent a total of 20 years in Afghanistan mostly as the country director for the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), one of the largest and most successful international NGOs in Afghanistan. Between 2003 and 2007, he was director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank. Fänge has also worked in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Central Asia. He received an honorary doctorate in 2012 from the Faculty of Political Science at Umeå University, Sweden.
Fange teaches a course on Failed and Fragile States in the Winter Term 2016 at SPP.