PALs Institutional Development Support to Improving Communities Demand for Efficient and Effective Governmental and Donors Services Delivery

PALs Institutional Development Support to Improving Communities Demand for Efficient and

Effective Governmental and Donors Services Delivery

1.      Government Concept on sub-national development

The viability of a nation building process depends ultimately on the establishment of state structures which are responsive to the demands of the population. Therefore, the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) “and the related parts of the Afghanistan Compact that outline mutual commitments of the international community and the government present a vision of governance that includes increased democracy, representation, accountability and effectiveness at ‘all levels of government. The economic and social strategy of the ANDS aims to create prosperity and to reduce poverty while eliminating narcotics from Afghanistan through the creation of an enabling environment for legal and equitable growth led by the private sector. The goal of the governance strategy is to nurture a stable constitutional, democratic unitary state where the Government is accountable to the people and the public sector at both the national and sub-national levels. The three branches of the government executive, legislative, judiciary will provide the necessary checks and balances. Finally, the Government must have the capacity to deliver services to the people.

The institutional framework and detailed strategies for achieving this vision are not yet clear. The reform of sub-national governance including the development of a functioning provincial and district administration is critical for realizing the government’s vision. Current reform efforts in the civil sector focus on building state institutions with a strong central authority. Under a centralized government system as it exists, all political authority is vested in the central Government in Kabul; in particular, for fiscal arrangements. Institutions at the sub-national level have little discretion over revenues or expenditures. The powers and responsibilities of sub-national government bodies are determined by the Central Government with service delivery provided by the provincial and district administrations and line directorates (secondary budget units) as well as the municipalities.

While a strong central authority is imperative, it has to be complemented with efforts to promote a bottom-up nation building process, namely from the village, district and provincial level. Reform at these local levels in the past has been slow and difficult. Large parts of the country are still suffering from weak, ineffective and - in some places - corrupt government. Therefore, increasingly more importance has to be put on building up the local governance structures and processes for a sub-national development.

Mainly at the provincial level, initiatives strived to establish or reform various structures and administrative relationships – in particular with regard to provincial planning processes. An institutional set-up is evolving to be useful in which the Provincial Governor is assisted by a Provincial Development Committee (PDC) in coordinating and planning the development activities within the Province. The Provincial Council shall provide consultation to these processes. Within this framework a Provincial Development Plan is being developed which is intended to serve as the framework for government budget allocations and donor investments.

However, service provision from the Province to the remote districts is not only expensive and inefficient on the long-run, the provincial government is too far from the people, as they can effectively participate in governance and contribute. A well capacitated and strengthened district administrations are the answer.

In this respect Subsidiary and Local Governance are the core elements of sub-national development. Success in sub-national and rural development is only possible with strong communities and district mechanisms, which allow people’s participation and decision making at the lowest appropriate level - thus assuring people’s continuous support to the state. The frame conditions for district development, however, are only partially favourable at this point.

Identifying this as a core task in the development of an independent and well positioned Afghanistan; the Project for Alternative Livelihoods in Eastern Afghanistan (PAL) has chosen a sustainable District Institutional Development process as a main pillar of its action plan. The approach of PAL focuses on the districts and their linkages to the communities and provincial level. Therefore, as a major result, PAL aims to enable the sub-national administration in the three provinces and 20 target districts to fulfil its mandate with reference to rural development in the context of opium based economy. The PAL District Institutional Development Approach is anchored on and contributes to the I-ANDS pillar 2 “Governance”, to pillar 3 “Economic and Social Development”, as well as to pillar 6 “Rural Development” and it is designed within the framework of Alternative Livelihoods approaches.

2.      PAL s District Institutional Development Approach

PAL focuses its institutional development support on the district level. In cooperation with others, PAL aims to enable the district administration to serve as the turn-table between the villages and the higher levels of government in development related matters. Consequently, the main objective of PAL is to assist a functioning district unit, interlinking institutions and government directorates, establish the processes that guide their activities and to provide them with the appropriate infrastructure to fulfil their mandate. The PAL will contribute a comprehensive capacity development program with the components of human resource development, organizational development and infrastructure development. PAL seeks to achieve this objective by building on existing institutions including National Programs, by creating synergies through inter-linking them and complementing them with new institutions and processes where necessary.

The PAL institutional development concept at the district level features four main components:

1.    Improving Village - District Relationships: Building on the achievements of the NSP, Social Organizers (SOs), who are MRRD district staff, will support villages to prepare comprehensive and practical Village Development Plans (VDPs) on the one hand, but also mobilizing villagers to take action in implementing development activities rather than waiting to be approached by external assistance. Furthermore, SOs will connect villages to relevant information, private and government services as well as potential funding sources.

In parallel, the District Governor’s Office will be supported in maintaining liaison with the rural population, e.g. through District Secretaries.

2.    Establish District Advisory Committees (DAC) as coordination, planning and technical advisory body at the district level mirrors the Provincial Development Committees (PDC). The DAC as an administrative body comprising of line directorate representatives will serve as counter-part of the District Development Assembly (DDA) which represents the communities. It is responsible for coordinating line directorate strategies and investment programs as well as local donor initiatives at the district level. Furthermore, the DAC supports the work of the Assembly (District Council) by informing the development and review of District Development Plans (DDP) with the aggregated data from Village Development Plans government or other sources as well as technical advice. The DAC will also supervise the administration of a District Development Fund (this concept has been discussed so far or still we should pick upon that???) and approve projects supported through it.

3.    Establish Processes and Administrative Procedures for the implementation of development policies according to standards of good governance. Fields of capacity development are: transparent service delivery, administering a development fund, public procurement (tendering) for district projects, monitoring, staff management and development related information management.

4.    Furnish the above mentioned components with the Infrastructure necessary to accomplish the tasks (buildings, furniture, stationary, solar energy, communication).

1.1         Improving Village – District Relationships

The MRRD Social Organizers –Linking Government Services to the People

PAL Objective

The objective of the village development of PAL is to reach a sustainable partnership for development between the government services and the villages (Cluster CDC) through participatory development planning, decision making and technical advice. The PAL follows a bottom-up approach:

• Firstly, to empower the C CDC to take their affairs into their own hands. 
• Secondly to build the capacities of the government services to provide the necessary support at lowest appropriate level.

Therefore, PAL has piloted the concept of MRRD district staff – Mobile Village Development Teams (MVDTs) – in its three pilot districts. This successful approach complements the latest nationwide MRRD strategy to station two MRRD district staff – the Social Organizers – in each district. In April 2008, PAL has completed the support for the establishment of MRRD Social Organizers in 20 districts of the PAL project area.

1.1.1        Tasks and responsibilities

The duties and tasks of a Social Organizer cover three major areas:

¨    Village Mobilization and Development: Building on the NSP, Social Organizers will assist village development bodies through additional mobilization, training and coaching enabling them to participate in the sub-national development process actively and continuously. In particular, they will facilitate comprehensive Village Development Plans (VDP), project design, advocacy for funds, monitoring and implementation. They will encourage villagers to use their self-help potential and facilitate access to government and private services.

¨    Support to District Development planning and monitoring: The Social Organizers will be part of the DAC and its Core Planning Team in support of the DDA (see below).

¨    Information Management: Social Organizers will liaise with the District Government, private service providers and donor agencies on all (district) development issues in order to bring services and information closer to the rural population. They will support the updating of a district development database and facilitate the dissemination of development related information to the villagers.

1.1.2        Strengthening Service Delivery of the District Governor’s Office

85 % per cent of Afghan citizens live in rural areas. To them the district centre and the Governor’s Office are the primary interface with the state. Therefore, PAL considers it important to support the capacities of the Governor’s Office to interact with the people and respond to their needs. As a complementary institution to the Social Organizers, PAL supports the service delivery of the Governor’s Office, one component being the establishment and training of District Secretaries in cooperation with the Afghanistan Stabilization Program (ASP).

Mandate and Tasks of the District Secretary

The District Secretary is responsible to manage the Office’s link with the communities. In particular, the District Secretary will support the district development planning based on community needs. Thereby he/she supports the Government’s bottom-up approach to development as stipulated in the I-ANDS. 

PAL seeks to enable the District Secretary to lead the Core Planning Team within the District Advisory Committee (DAC) in cooperation with the Social Organizers. Details on this function are described below (section 2.3.4). Beyond that the District Secretary is best suited to manage a District Information Centre (see Complementary Document) to inform rural population on Government policies and development opportunities.

1.2         The District Advisory Committee (DAC) – Coordinating Services for the Benefit of the People

1.2.1        PAL Objective

Planning and coordination of public services are core tasks within any administration. Consequently, related capacities shall be developed and institutionalized within the district level administration (governor’s office, line directorates and agencies). Similar to the Provincial Development Committees a District Advisory Committee can be a useful tool for efficient and coordinated development planning and program implementation. Efficiently functioning District Development Committees are essential to improve the outcome of district development planning and implementation led by the District Development Assembly (DDA). The DAC (through its government experts) can inform the work of the DDA through technical advice and interlink the DDA with complementary government programs and services. Therefore, PAL seeks to support the establishment and functioning of District Advisory Committees to improve district level governance for quality planning and service delivery.

1.2.2        The Composition and Structure of the District Advisory Committee (DAC)

The District Advisory Committee (DAC) is to be formed and led by the District Governor. The DDC is composed of about ten experts of relevant line directorates (or agencies) at the district level such as District Secretary, Rural Development and Rehabilitation, Health, Education, Public Works, Agriculture, Water and Energy, Counter-Narcotics, Planning, Economics, Security Forces when necessary). Where line directorates do not have a permanent representative at the district level they should send a provincial officer. The DAC may form subject-specific sub-committees.

The delegate to the Provincial Council of the district, locally active government or donor agencies, NGOs and private sector associations may participate as observers or advisors upon invitation by the DAC.

The DAC will have a Core Planning Team led by the District Secretary assisted by the MRRD Social Organizers. The Core Planning Team supports the DAC by liaising with Community Development Councils or C CDC. (the village is not defined by Clusters that is why we better avoid using the name village here), pre-assessing their village development plans, identifying priority areas for district development, pre-assessing village/district project proposals and maintaining the district database. In addition, they may support the secretariat of the DDA in administrative matters, will call for the meetings and invite the provincial representatives of the Line Ministries as needed.

1.3         Capacity Development – Making Institutions Work

PAL will support the above described institutional set-up with the necessary capacity development measures for districts to perform the respective tasks efficiently and effectively. A further consideration was to provide adequate working conditions. Previous assessments by PAL have identified the following needs:

¨    Infrastructure – Rehabilitation of and new buildings, furniture, equipment, energy supply (i.e. solar panels) stationary and office supplies.

¨    Processes – Introducing processes of good governance, such as of public procurement, monitoring and evaluation and information management

¨    Human Resource Development – Community mobilization techniques, management and communication skills, information management, budgeting, monitoring, administration, computer skills, gender issues, etc..

¨    Allowances/Transport – PAL will support the elaboration of a viable and sustainable transport scheme for local government staff. Meanwhile in a limited, agreed and temporary scope, PAL will provide allowances for travel from and to communities (villages) and the holding of meetings.

¨    Communication – Improve communication facilities within the districts and to other government levels; this will include installing and maintaining information centres which can be used as a platform for trainings or the dissemination of information to villagers.

3.      Concluding Remarks

With the successful implementation of the above described District Institutional Development approach Afghanistan will have a functioning set of institutions at the district level which assures efficient and coordinated government services for development. The chain of development planning and service delivery will be complete from the rural villages up to the national level. The consultative mechanisms will be in place to provide annual updates for the Government’s achievements and the continuous adaptation of its development strategies (ANDS). However, this approach can only be successful with the support and strong leadership of the Government of Afghanistan towards real bottom-up sub-national development.

Sustainability

The sustainability of this approach lies in the capacity development of institutions and promoting within the framework of the Afghan Constitution and local governance through participatory and transparent development processes. This approach develops capacities within the government and seeks to avoid temporary parallel or parastatal structures. Thereby, the processes established can become replicable and long lasting. PAL aims to leave as much responsibilities as possible directly with the people or the local administration in order to avoid institutions and services depending on the currently high levels of donor commitment and funds. PAL avoids creating new institutions, parallel processes and introducing unrealistic financial commitments. It looks for existing structures to build on and improve.



DISCLAIMER
This article has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and the GTZ IS. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or the GTZ IS.
The Project for Alternative Livelihoods in Eastern Afghanistan (PAL) is located at Jalalabad and funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by GTZ IS.