Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai or Ashraf Ghani is the Chairman of the Institute of State Effectiveness, an organization set up in January 2005 to promote the ability of states to serve their citizens. As Afghanistan's finance minister between July 2002 and December 2004, he set the path for Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery after the collapse of the Taliban.

Commonly he is shortly referred to as Ahsraf Ghani, since there is also another Afghan politician named Mohammad Sarwar Ahmadzai, who was also a candidate in the Afghan presidential election, 2009.

Dr. Ghani is also a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the UNDP. He is currently the third in polls, behind the present president Hamid Karzai and his main contender Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.