U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
23 June 2003


AFGHANISTAN: National Solidarity Programme to boost rehabilitation

BAMIAN, 23 June (IRIN) - The government has announced that intensive
rehabilitation projects will be undertaken in 5,000 villages country-wide
within the next four weeks under the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).
The announcement follows the inauguration of the fifth launch of the NSP
in the central Bamian Province last week.

"The NSP has already been launched in five provinces, including Farah,
Herat, Kandahar, Parvan and Bamian, and will be undertaken in all other
provinces in the next four weeks," Rural Rehabilitation and Development
Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told IRIN in Bamian.

Established by the government, the NSP is a US $600 million three-year
programme designed to develop the capacity of communities through
democratically elected local institutions to identify, plan, manage and
monitor their own reconstruction and development models.

Atmar said the NSP had an implementation framework that included a
methodology for providing direct financing to communities; transparent
election procedures for community institutions; and community management
of reconstruction and development.

"This methodology focuses on fostering a commitment to pursuing the
development and strengthening of inclusive community institutions through
participatory planning and resource management," he explained.

The ministry specified that in the first year, three target districts had
been selected in each province based on vulnerability data in terms of
severity of drought impact and the number of internally displaced persons
and refugees. "In year one, the amount allocated per district will be up
to US $1.6 million, to be divided among communities with a total
population comprising around 8,000 families," Atmar said, noting that in
three years the programme would cover all the districts and villages
throughout the country.

According to the minister, of the $92 million estimated cost for the first
year, only $22 million had been granted by the World Bank, with the
balance yet to be pledged by donors.

The NSP is a completely new initiative and, for the first time in the
history of Afghan rehabilitation, the donor fund is being given directly
to the government for a nationwide rehabilitation purpose. However, the
government said, as the NSP was new and had a huge task in the first year,
the government's capacity did not suffice for the overall implementation
needs, and therefore international facilitating partners needed to be
brought in.

"We have contracted with Habitat [United Nations Human Settlement
Programme] to oversee the NSP process in the five provinces that have been
selected so far," Atmar said, adding that more facilitating partners were
planned to undertake the work in different provinces.

Habitat, which has a long experience in community mobilisation in
Afghanistan, said NSP would cultivate a culture of community governance
and consultation where people would be given the chance to develop
ownership.

"The NSP aims to lay the foundations for a long-term strengthening of
local governance, to make it more inclusive, and to provide assistance for
reconstruction and development of communities," Friedrich Affolter, a
Habitat training adviser, told IRIN, noting that Habitat had hired male
and female local facilitators who were undertaking needs assessments
through consultations with elders and small household groups. "We have to
coach the community in a process where it matures organically and takes
responsibility," he said.

According to Safdar Ali, a resident of Bamian, people will successfully
implement the NSP, but that the allocation per village - ranging from
$20,000 to $60,000 - might not be sufficient as most of the projects were
long-term development programmes in nature. "For us, the NSP is more
important for uniting and strengthening communities, because it creates a
sense of possession in the rehabilitation of the country," the 35-year-old
teacher told IRIN.

While Atmar remained confident that the multimillion dollar project would
not face funding problems, as many donors, including the World Bank, had
shown interest in supporting the programme, he maintained that security
would remain a key challenge for the nationwide undertaking. "Now that we
have international companies and expatriates working with us, security
will be a big challenge," he explained.

Habitat, which is at present the only NSP player in the five provinces,
said it had already reduced some of its activities in some provinces due
to security concerns. "We have interesting projects, but we cannot work in
all areas," Affolter said, even though he believed the successful
implementation of NSP would itself contribute to security.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


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