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After two decades of war, Afghanistan’s governance system has been completely decimated. In response the transitional government and UN-HABITAT has designed the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) which is aimed at strengthening the network of some 30,000 self-governing community institutions. |
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Location: Provinces of Kandahar, Farah, Herat, Bamyan, Parwan, Kapisa, Balkh, Panjshir, Nangahar |
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Branch: |
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Partner: Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), Provinces of Kandahar, Farah, Herat, Bamyan, Parwan, Kapisa, Balkh, Panjshir, Nangahar, UN-HABITAT
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Donor: World Bank |
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Cost: US$5,302,314 |
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Background and Objectives:
After two decades of war, Afghanistan’s governance system has been completely decimated. In response the transitional government and UN-HABITAT has designed the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) which is aimed at strengthening the network of some 30,000 self-governing community institutions.
The NSP has three objectives in empowering communities: (i) re-establishing relations between government and rural communities; (ii) providing grants for the reconstruction of physical and social infrastructure; (iii) empowering communities and establishing community-level governance structures.
The programme establishes local community institutions and develops the ability of communities to plan, manage, finance and monitor their own development projects. Communities work with the government through elected representatives to their own Community Development Councils (CDCs), with regular consultations and consensus building among community members. UN-HABITAT is currently operating as the designated Facilitating Partner (FP) in 43 districts of nine provinces, with operations in 2,848 communities.
Activities:
National Solidarity Programme is implemented in five phases:
Phase 1: Undertaking community awareness-raising and problem identification.
Phase 2: Establishing Community Development Councils. Council members are voted in through the secret ballot and must be aged above 20 years. Each elected member represents 28 eligible voters.
Phase 3: Preparing and endorsing a Community Development Plan and setting up a Community Savings Box.
Phase 4: Submitting proposals and preparing designs for community projects.
Phase 5: Implementing projects including monitoring, eva
Results:
A total of 2,848 communities (= 586,016 families = 4.1 million people) have participated in the National Solidarity Programme.
A total of 2,763 communities completed Community Development Councils elections by July 2006
Prepared a total of 4,711 project proposals.
Approved 4,581 sub-projects with US$47 million disbursed to the communities (total US$101 million allocated).
The National Solidarity Programme has provided considerable capacity development support to communities through training.
Prepared a wide range of training materials in three languages.
