Small successes

In the small town of Warsaj, a school for girls was built with German assistance. In two shifts, 1000 girls are taught in six new classrooms. The school is already too small for the large number of students, so lessons sometimes take place outside. There is a lack of teaching material in local languages, and there are not enough teachers. Therefore, some students from advanced classes teach lower classes. The government pays teachers 2200 Afghanis per month, the equivalent of $ 44.

In 2003, the government of Afghanistan initiated the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) to encourage the wide-scale development of civil society (Börgel, 2004). The World Bank and other international donors support this policy. Despite a number of setbacks, the programme offers people the opportunity to take the development of their communities into their own hands.

The government initially hoped to give sufficient impetus to get the economy going at the local level within two years, but that was over-ambitious from the outset. However, non-governmental organisations and bilateral donors did take up the momentum, and things have begun to move. Four years on, the programme is beginning to bear fruit. While inadequate security does have a negative impact, there is proof of development succeeding at the local level. Infrastructure measures, above all, set visible signs.

A key component of the NSP is the establishment of “development councils”, local committees made up of elected community representatives. They are controlled by the shuras, village assemblies elected for three years, which can have representatives from each family. Council members who do not fulfil their duties are not re-elected. Decisions can be made either by consensus or by majority. Due to gender segregation, women and men debate separately, but, thanks to family ties, exchange takes place between the separate committees before a development council decides on important matters.

Legitimate councils

The councils are elected democratically, but traditional elites often try to assert their influence. Accordingly, traditional power structures are also reflected in the committees. Nevertheless, it is vital that donors cooperate with the elected – and thus legitimate – councils. It will take time for democracy to take root, and if the international community does not appreciate small steps forward, the risk of Afghanistan deteriorating into a failed state can only grow.

According to the chairman of one development council, appointing a treasurer at the municipal level was the greatest accomplishment of the NSP. Previously, the head of the village was in charge of funds, but no one dared to ask about the whereabouts of the money. Since the treasurer was introduced, every cent spent at the municipal level has become transparent.

The NSP also facilitates the cooperation of several villages. In Warsaj District, for example, several villages jointly built a country road. The development councils and the traditional shuras selected the workforce, with each village determining who would build the road in its area. Once that section was completed, the next village sent out its labourers on its territory.
Construction workers earn the equivalent of around four dollars a day. On average, the men provide for seven to ten people. Some previously earned money in Iran, where they made six dollars a day, a little more than they do in Afghanistan today. However, they gladly accept the difference because Iran is far away, and migrants are not welcome there at the moment. Many workers are also happy to take part in reconstructing their homeland. A welcome side effect is that local communities are assuming responsibility for their road.

No weapons

Since security is a basic condition for successful reconstruction, firearms are banned in Warsaj District. The people welcome this order by the district manager. As a matter of principle, German soldiers patrol the villages in uniform, so it is not difficult for the people to tell civilian development workers from military personnel. The low-key presence of the German soldiers conveys a different idea of military practice than what people remember from Russians and warlords in past decades or what they see in television coverage of the country’s violent south.

It does not seem to matter to the Afghan people which German agency sets up a well or a health centre, or who picks up the information that a village needs a school. What is relevant to them is that something happens, and that local issues are taken seriously.

District residents contribute labour to local projects, and they also act on their own initiative. Residents built the boys school in Warsaj, for example, with German armed forces providing the paint. Villagers also drew up a plan for the maintenance of a road repaired with German funds. Should maintenance work be required, each private household is to contribute $ 0.10 to $ 0.20. According to this scheme, one person is to act on behalf of five villagers.

However, projects to promote an economic revival depend on investments. Ideas on what might bring growth to the district have been around for a long time. Suggestions range from building a soap factory, to manufacturing crockery and plastic sheeting, to processing marble stones. Without start-up funding, however, these projects cannot take off. First consultations with foreign donors took place three years ago, but some donors are very slow at disbursing money.

Donors typically like measures that quickly produce visible results. But the time in which such projects were urgent is over. Now, longer-term measures are required, above all in rural areas. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the strategy of small and quick projects has contributed – among other factors – to progress being so slow. No donor, for instance, was prepared to provide $ 1 million for an irrigation canal, even though it would have improved farmers’ incomes in the long term.

Local fund

Provincial and District Development Funds (PDF and DDF), which are currently financed by Germany alone, have been established in the northern provinces since last year. Community development councils can submit proposals for projects to these funds. The NSP made the initial steps towards setting up such funds in 2003, and Germany further developed this approach last year. A new feature is that the decision-making committees now have equal representation from Germany and Afghanistan. Other donors have become interested in this model, but it has not been implemented in other provinces yet.

Doing so would require intense cooperation on the part of Afghanistan too. After all, PDF und DDF decision making involves all levels of Afghanistan’s administrative set-up (governors, ministries and development councils), thereby increasing transparency and accountability.
Villagers have spent up to three days travelling on foot to submit proposals. Such efforts prove that this type of fund offers a key to true Afghan ownership.

In the northern provinces, however, the number of proposals exceeds the volume of the funds – and even more so do local needs. Some proposals are simply turned down because there is neither enough staff nor money to check the preconditions in place. Such denials, of course, hurt development.

It is impossible to eradicate the consequences of almost 30 years of war in Afghanistan in just five years. Ten to twenty years would be a more realistic time span. Most of all, however, it is important to restore and consolidate security if serious reconstruction is to be achieved.