Thematic Areas: Poverty Reduction

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[Last Updated July 2008]

Project Start Date: June 2006
Project End Date: January 2009
Project Location: Kabul
Status of the Project: Ongoing
Partners: Office of the President

http://www.ands.gov.af

The Afghanistan Compact and the Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy (IANDS) were both approved at the London Conference in January 2006. The Compact was subsequently endorsed by the UN Security Council.

The preparation phase of the ANDS started in June 2006 and ended in January 2007. This phase was developed between UNDP and the Government of Afghanistan with the financial support from DfID and UNDP core resources. The preparatory phase provided the basis to develop the ANDS work plan, recruiting the national staff and international support teams and consulting and agreeing upon the support and engagement required from the donors for the full programme document.

During this phase, a number of key issues were identified, consulted and addressed during the consultation with the donors. These included the institutional relationship between the ANDS Directorate and the line ministries, overall costed sustainability, national ownership, operating costs, and the ratio of international consultants employed either directly through the project or via parallel mechanisms. In 2007, the original project document has been refined and adjusted in the preparatory phase to incorporate these concerns and signed by the Government of Afghanistan and UNDP management in February 2007. This project focus on support deemed essential for the production of the ANDS and operation of the JCMB Secretariat. Capacity development support to line ministries and other Government agencies – originally a part of the project – will now be undertaken as a separate and complementary initiative.

The main objective of the process is to develop and implement a pro-poor strategy that will be costed, prioritized, sequenced and budgeted and that reflects a broad consensus on national and provincial priorities in order to fight poverty.

During the project period, the Afghan Government will formulate and commence implementation of its National Development Strategy to meet the requirements of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). To prepare the ANDS it will develop and implement ministry-based sector strategies to reach the Compact benchmarks. Collectively these strategies will combine to create the full Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

Major Achievements

UNDP strongly supported the ANDS/JCMB team in recruitment for provincial consultation officers, sector coordinators, pillar coordinators, communication office and other support staff that strongly contribute to the process of I -ANDS preparation. Regular consultative Group and Working Group meetings are taking place.

During the past months, a wide-ranging awareness campaign was initiated on June 24 in parallel to the launch of the sub-national consultations throughout the country in which the sub-national consultations were conducted.

During this consultation process, media packages were disseminated to the local media where the consultations were taking place in different provinces. These packages were also shared with the participants of the sub-national consultations one week prior to the initiation of the consultation.
Support materials for this campaign were being developed. Big billboards advertising the overall development process in Afghanistan were put up in all main cities throughout the country.

During the consultation process, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) played the role of facilitator and coordinated the sub-national consultations through UNDP’s National Area Based Development (NABDP) project. These series consultations were divided into two sets of workshops. During the first phase of these workshops were dedicated to presenting ministry strategies to the consultation participants for their advice and validation. The second set of workshops focused to develop all essential inputs for provincial development plans (PDPs).

All ministries provided the opportunity to comment on their won strategies received during the sub-national consultations, and ANDS has discussed with all concerned on how to integrate these comments into their ministry strategies.

These consultations were attended by 8,000 participants from all 34 participants, donors, NGOs and Civil Society organizations. On average, approximately 40% of the participants were female.

The first draft of 17 sector strategies had been prepared by line ministries. ANDS sector strategies have been drafted for the following sectors: 1) Agriculture and Rural Development, 2) Information and Communication Technology, 3) Education, 4) Energy, 5) Health, 6) Justice and the Rule of Law, 7) Governance, 8) Media and Culture, 9) Mines and Natural Resources, 10) Private Sector Development, 11) Refugees, Returnees, and IDPs, 12) Religious Affairs, 13) Social Protection, 14) Transport, 15) Water Resource Management, 16) Urban Development, and the 17) Macroeconomic Framework. Strategies have also been written for five cross cutting issues: 1) Gender, 2) Counter-Narcotics, 3) Anti-Corruption, 4) Environment and 5) Regional Cooperation. The preparation of three of the sector strategies – Education, Health, and Transport – has been sped up so that they can be costed and integrated into the 1387 budget.

Based on the request of the ANDS Secretariat UNDP has commenced facilitating a dialogue process with donors and representatives of international organizations on every sector strategy of the ANDS. ANDS secretariat was provided by the outcome of the donor dialogue and a package of consolidated and specific comments from participants.

Future Priorities

• Identifying the costing for the MDG
• Finalizing the sector strategies in consideration of comments received during the donor dialogue.
• Number of donors are engaged in dialogue on the ANDS
• ANDS translated and disseminated nationally and sub-national
• Costing of the prioritized sectoral strategies;
• Recruitment of consultants to work on conflict management and poverty related issues;
• Provide training to CSO and ANDS staff on poverty line, Poverty Gap and measurement;
• ANDS/PRSP production, publication and dissemination at provincial level;
• Development of materials in Pastho/ Dari for the awareness-raising campaigns - including dramas, radio programmes, short movies, media packages, briefing packages for MPs and Civil servants, and Afghan Embassies;
• Organize the training of local media on the MDGs, and the ANDS (newspapers, radios, TV);
• Support to JCMB secretariat establishment;

Partnerships and Resources

Target Budget: USD 8,773,141

Received budget: all donor contributions listed here have been pledged in writing and formalized through signed agreements. So far we received USD 4,580,789 from the following donors.

Donors: CIDA USD 1,909, 189, DFID USD 2,337,861 Italy USD 249,688, UN RC 55,000, Norway USD 269,841 (139,417 USD received), Netherlands USD 239,141 and UNDP Core USD 309,000.

Focal Point: Mohammad Sediq Orya, Programme officer (mohammad.sediq.orya@undp.org)

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