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LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The People’s Development Fund, a program created to build government capacity in Wardak and Logar provinces, is providing funding for projects that benefit the citizens in the area.
This program provides the local governments with the opportunity and responsibility to determine the projects that will most benefit their residents and holds those governments accountable during the process to ensure projects are run effectively and fairly.
At just four months into the project, impressive results are beginning to roll in, said U.S. Army Maj. Jay Baker, an Escondido, Calif., native and civil affairs governance officer for the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
The PDF distributes grants to district and provincial governments as a development budget on a biannual basis. The program emphasizes a fair process to build a stronger relationship between citizens and local governments.
The main requirements for funding are transparency and accountability in order to ensure funds are used in accordance with the program’s intent, but all decisions for projects and contractors are left in the hands of the district and provincial leaders.
The PDF approach lets province and district leaders develop their own solutions to meet the fund’s requirements.
In addition, the project selection process has to be evident to local Afghans for better accountability, which is why the Afghan media are involved with the program.
“Provincial and district residents must be kept informed at each step of the process from project selection to contractor identification to final audits. But how this is done is left to each province and district,” said Baker. “Districts implement the fund in quite different ways, demonstrating the importance of this flexibility.”
In Baraki Barak District, the district governor engaged both of the district’s formal decision-making bodies, the District Development Assembly and the Afghan Social Outreach Program council, as well as informal shuras in order to achieve buy-in to the PDF process. After wide consultation, Baraki Barak officials decided to spend its entire PDF allocation on a single project, a local hospital.
“Mohammad Agha [District’s] experience is different, but equally successful,” added Baker. “The district governor directed his DDA and ASOP council members to go back to their sub-districts and solicit projects from their communities. The 17 identified projects were all worthy of funding, but exceeded the district’s PDF allocation. To avoid accusations of favoritism, priorities were decided by lottery. The first cycle’s budget was exhausted by the first six projects, with the others held in reserve for funding in subsequent cycles.”
Other districts in the two provinces have similar success stories. Funds are being used to improve roads and canals, and build clinics and other infrastructure to help residents.
Baker cites how district shura meetings were conducted in order to choose projects and districts have demonstrated they are fully capable of complying with the transparency and representativeness requirements.
The first cycle of PDF is drawing to a close, and 11 of 16 districts in Wardak and Logar provinces found ways to implement their allocated budgets of about $5.6 million for a total of 76 development projects throughout both provinces.
“The program’s early successes demonstrate that under the right incentives, local Afghan governments are up to the challenge of implementing and managing development assistance,” said Logar Gov. Atiqullah Lodin.
Construction of the selected projects is just beginning and further transparency requirements must be met in order for the district and provincial governments to access funds in the second round, but the performance of local governments is promising. PDF gives the government of Afghanistan a way to bring development to its people where it matters most, in provinces and districts, and when it matters most, now.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2010 14:47 |
| Story ID: | 57328 |
| Location: | LOGAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 5 |
This work, People’s Development Fund helps build eastern provinces, by SFC Bruce Cobbeldick, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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