Thematic Area: Democratic Governance

Project Document

Annual Work Plan of 2009

Progress Report Quarter 1 2009

Annual Report 2008
Annual Report 2007
Progress Report Quarter 1 2008
Progress Report Quarter 2 2008
Progress Report Quarter 2 2008 SCOG Annex 1 AWP
Progress Report Quarter 3 2008
Progress Report Quarter 1 2007
Progress Report Quarter 2 2007
Progress Report Quarter 3 2007
Annual Report 2006

[Last Updated June 2009]

Project Start Date: July 2006
Project End Date: June 2009
Project Location: The Asia Foundation and the Office of the Chief of Staff (CoS) and Office of the administrative affairs (OAA) Kabul
Status of the Project: Active
Responsible partner: Office of Administrative Affairs, Chief of Staff Office
Implementation Modality: Direct Implementation (DIM)

Background:

The Support to Center of Government (SCoG) project targets the Afghan Center of Government, which includes the Office of Administrative Affairs (OAA) and the Chief of Staff Office (CoS). Whereas in particular, the CoS office supports the president in his role as the head of the state, the OAA supports the president in his role as the head of the government.

The objective of the project is to strengthen the institutions at the Centre of Government so that they are more agile, streamlined, transparent, and effective in their support of the Office of President as it strives to meet its policy objectives. The outcome will be CoS and OAA offices that have been transformed over a three-year period, through building their capacities, rationalization of their organizational structures, redesigning of their administrative work processes, and upgrading of their facilities and information technology to international standards.

The project document envisages a “systems approach” that will simultaneously address the improvement of the following six key inter-related domains: 1) Physical facilities, 2) Information Technology, 3) Administrative Work Processes, 4) Training, 5) Organization and 6) Policy Facilitation & Decision Making Processes

Achievements:

Facilities Domain:

The OAA building renovation and CoS administration building design have been completed and the construction work commenced in July, 2008. The renovation has allowed for proper work facilities and office space for staff members to do their job. Additionally, kitchen/depot software was developed to allow the center of Government institutions to develop requests, requisitions, receipts, inventory management, issues, meal planning and menus in an open and coordinated manner, ensuring more efficient planning and transparency of purchases.

Information Technology:

An ICT needs assessement has been carried out to ensure that necessary equipment and systems are provided for more streamlined work and management processes to be supported through IT solutions. The OAA secure server infrastructure has been completed and additional features have been added to enable greater stability and easier management by the OAA IT staff. The OAA website has been designed and launched and control handed over to OAA IT officials. The ICT manager has been mentored to prepare mid- and long-term strategic ICT plans and to develop standard practices and policies to increase the sustainability and maintenance of IT equipment and ensure continued training on the use of the IT facilities. To this effect, IT training and 490 hours of onsite mentoring of ICT managers and staff have been provided. Additionally, a help desk support technician has been stationed full time at the OAA to support. Network security and performance has been enhanced and wireless connectivity and testing and repairing of existing cables have been undertaken to ensure improved communication across departments .The Presidential website is completed, increasing communication of the center of Government with the public and providing for a platform to share information relevant to the public.

Administrative Work Process:

An Administrative Work Process Improvement Guide was developed in English and Dari, allowing for the center of Government to further streamline its work processes. A process map for Procurement as defined by the Procurement Law has been completed, allowing for more open, timely and transparent procurement processes. The OAA Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate strategy has been overhauled and improved to improve M&E capacity. Grievance and leave policies have been developed and implemented and the performance appraisal policy has been refined to ensure more transparent staff management. To the same effect, the mapping of the OAA HR processes has been completed.

 Training:

A comprehensive training needs assessement has been carried out and a comprehensive training strategy for officers and staff designed for OAA and CoS to meet the comprehensive capacity development needs in accordance with the changes in administrative and organizational processes. In line with this, t wo new training centers have been operational ized and o ver 250 staff enrolled in daily English language and computer classes, and o verseas training programmes and exposure visits have been carried out. Human resource management and leadership symposiums were conducted for all HR staff and basic and advanced HR training were implemented. A plan for the provision of more skills-based training has been developed mainly directed at mid- to senior level staff. A t raining data base now enables course registration, course scheduling, and selection of participants and will hopefully enable a more rational process for assigning staff to relevant training activities and measurements for each course offered .

 Organization:

A comprehensive HR assessment has been completed of both OAA and CoS and the recommendation were accepted for implementation by the leadership of the two institutions. HR management policies and procedures have been reviewed and approximately 120 hours of onsite HR management mentoring has been provided on merit based recruitment procedures and interviewing skills. A fundamental HRM training course has been identified and modified.“Leave Request and Approval” and “Job Application” form s have been developed and over 60 job descriptions prepared. This has contributed to improving the transparency and openness of HR procedures and staff management. As there has been considerable resistance to change in the institutions, the project has focused on building sound relationships with the senior management and fostering an attitudinal leadership change, which has enabled recommended changes to be more fully owned and accepted by Government stakeholders.

 Policy and Decision Making Process:

A Cabinet Liaison Officer (CLO) programme has been designed and launched to help improve Cabinet meeting coordination processes among the 26 ministries. Mission statements, Terms of Reference, meeting agendas and job descriptions for the CoS office have been prepared and OAA policy specialists have been coached and mentored on policy secondary analysis, coordination, monitoring and evaluation. Joint SCoG-OAA and SCoG-CoS policy working groups have been established to handle policy related issues in a timely and professional manner. A new format for policy submissions has been developed and approved by the SCoG-OAA policy group and the Cabinet. The shortfall in every stage of the policy process has been identified and a comprehensive set of recommendations has been provided to the OAA and related ministries and recommendations on the organizational structure and mandate of the various directorates of the CoS has been developed.

Future Priorities:

• As the part of the project implemented by The Asia Foundation is coming to an end it is important to continue discussions with government and donors on the future needs for support at the center of Government
• Proper handover of implemented project activities
• Timely completion of the construction of the CoS administrative building

Challenges and Risks:

• Government ownership over the project implementation process should be increased, including as part of the process of identifying additional needs. The current UNDP project can play and has played a facilitative role in this regard
• Policy formulation and adoption continues to happen in an uncoordinated manner, which creates problems at the implementation stage. The institutions have to be encouraged and trained in conducting extensive consultation with relevant stakeholders during policy formulation. Moreover, some policy objectives and implementation procedures are not clear and as a result success and failure is difficult to gauge properly.
• For the project achievements to be sustainable there will be a need to focus more on the training of mid- and senior level staff an more skills-based areas and policy issues, as well as to provide widespread education on relevant laws and regulations. Additionally, developing capacity to ensure the proper maintenance of existing IT equipment and resources is a challenge, as capacity remains low.
• There is a continued risk, despite the development of the training database, that training is not provided to the right people or in the right areas and that training is not coordinated fully with work tasks and responsibility, as well as the future needs of the organizations.
• The project is planned to be implemented over a three year period. Many of the achievements, particularly in terms of the new work and administrative processes and the installed IT hard and soft ware, will however not be sustainable if continued support is not provided past the present project, particularly in terms of additional training for all levels of staff.

Partnerships and Resources:

Target Budget: USD 17,074,000 Million
Received Budget: USD 16,472,777
Commitment: USD 16,472,777
Shortfall: USD 601223
Donors: UNDP, USAID and DFID

Contacts:

Abdel Ellah Sediqi, National Project Manager (abdelellah.sediqi@undp.org)
Dilawar Khan, Programme Officer (dilawar.khan@undp.org)

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