Title of the Project:                      Afghanistan Sub-national Governance

                                                       Programme (ASGP)

Implementing Partner:               United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Duration:                                       December 2009 – June 2012 (Phase 2)

Budget:                                          4'000'000 Swiss francs

Locations:                                     Nationwide

Background:

The Afghanistan Sub-national Governance Programme (ASGP) is a multi– donor assisted project that supports the Gov. of Afghanistan (GoA) to enhance local governance at the operational and policy levels since 2006. It is implemented by UNDP as international partner and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) and the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC) from the GoA. ASGP’s assistance has been crucial in achieving that every sub-national civil servant has a minimum level of understanding and skills in democratic governance and public administration. The reforms introduced at the level of Provincial Governments resulted in the implementation of a standard set of financial procedures which allows planning and overseeing investments and being accountable to provincial councils and central financial control. Similar instruments were introduced in provincial councils. The most significant success of the ASGP however was achieved in its municipal programme. However, these reforms have yet to been rolled out across a significant part of the country. In its second phase, ASGP will therefore scale up existing programmes.

Project Objectives:

The Specific objective of the project is the promotion and enhancement of public administration and governance capacity at the central and provincial levels in order to improve delivery of services in an equitable, efficient and effective manner and to provide all Afghan citizens with equal opportunities and equitable economic growth through enhancing peace and stability in the country. The expected outcome of the project is the establishment of an effective, accountable, participatory, and more representative national and sub-national governance structure in Afghanistan. This will be achieved by delivering five specific outputs. The outputs are:

National systems, procedures and legal frameworks are in place to implement, coordinate and monitor the sub – national governance policy;

Provincial and District Governors’ Offices have the capacity to manage provincial and district governance, development and security strategies in accordance with ANDS;

IDLG and IARCSC have the capacity to coordinate PAR implementation, and the IARCSC sub-national offices have the capacity to deliver public administration reforms to all sub-national government institutions.

Provincial and District Councils are effectively representing their electorates whilst holding the sub-national government administrations to account.

Municipalities have the institutional and organizational framework and capacity to collect revenue and deliver basic public services.

ASGP implementation will improve the lives of women by mainstreaming the gender agenda into all aspects of sub-national governance.

The contribution to ASGP is intended to be the flagship investment in the area of local governance which is a priority of the SDC's strategy for Afghanistan 2012–2014. The same holds true for the Afghanistan Compact and national priorities reflected in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

Last update: March 2012.