Conclusion and Recommendations

A Rural Support Programme is needed in Afghanistan to empower the people and motivate them to help themselves for overcoming the existing problems of poverty, insecurity, underdevelopment and instability that are compounded or indeed dwarfed by the lack of a coherent strategy on part of some development programme.  From this assessment visit we concluded that the presence of RSPs is necessary at the micro level to provide support to households for rebuilding their livelihood systems, and paying greater attention to the new role of women in the Islamic government in the aftermath of war.  

Such programmes will help the people build their skills and work on their own income generating activities.  Unsurprisingly, the macro and micro interact.  Small farming (or herding) households are historically central not simply to their own subsistence but to urban food and raw material supplies, urban goods and services markets, indirect tax revenue and exports.  Their revival is, therefore, strategically and macroeconomically as well as socially and politically important- but impossible without the establishment of Afghanistan Rural Support Programme.

It is hereby recommended that: 

¨      An Afghanistan Rural Support Programme should be launched for working at the grassroots so as to change the existing concept of rehabilitation in Afghanistan.  There is a need to reconsider rehabilitation by moving beyond a relief-oriented, supply-driven approach to rehabilitation.  And that can only be done through social mobilisation at the grass roots level. 

¨      The recommended Rural Support Programme will provide the framework for reviving livelihoods and civil institutions previously suppressed, eroded or rendered powerless by war, with the aim of strengthening local capacities (state and communities) to participate in the reconstruction process. 

¨      The programme should be designed taking into account the environment in which the work will be undertaken.  This would includes the remoteness and isolation of the areas, the very poor physical infrastructure, the extreme poverty of the villages the ARSP would be assisting, the absence of effective governmental institutions, etc.  But certainly, the prevailing conditions are far more suitable than at any time in the past decades for carrying on such a community development and poverty alleviation programme in Afghanistan. 

¨      The programme should have a core office in Kabul and two regional offices one in Nangerhar and the other in Tajik area.  The Jalalabad office (Nangerhar) should start first followed by the Tajik area in the Central Zone in the following years. 

Afghanistan has already been divided into five different zones as follows:

 

Based on this division, starting with an RSP in the Eastern Zone in the long run an RSP can be established in each zone.  At the moment, the core office established at Kabul would cover the following area:

 

 

However, part of the Eastern Zone (highlighted in green in the above map) can be selected to begin with the first experimental RSP.  The Eastern Zone consists of the following provinces:  

Nangarhar and Konarh provinces have the advantage of being close to Peshawar, Pakistan, where as Laghman adjoining to Nangarhar (with a Kabul based Core Office) would have the advantage of close collaboration with different government departments. 

¨      The core office at Kabul will be responsible for providing back up service services to the field offices and would work in close collaboration with the government. 

¨      AHRDO is a new NGO, but is well connected with the government.  Its staff is very enthusiastic and interested in commencing Afghan Rural Support Programme. It, however, needs capacity building to become an implementing agency by re-organising it on the style of RSPs, or the RSP shall be implemented by the funding agency directly in association with AHRDO.  After the initial three years the responsibility of programme will be gradually transferred to AHRDO. 

¨      The government representatives were positive about credit programme and women development within the framework of the Islamic teachings and principles.  The chancellor of Kabul University suggested the charges on investment like KHUMAS (one fifth of the product), Muzrabath and Musharakha like ventures for development interventions.  Apart from this RSP’s can also follow the example of NPO/RRAA practice of disbursing credit, whereas they charge an application fee for the request of credit that covers the service cost etc. 

¨      The proposed Rural Support Programme for Afghanistan must keep in mind the female employees are not allowed to sit in the office.  However, the government attitude towards NGOs is friendly.  The government has also allowed NGOs to work on women health in rural areas by keeping husband and wife as employees, who jointly visit the community.  

¨      Due to massive destruction of infrastructure on all levels, working on the micro-level with communities through RSPs would not be enough for actual development to take place.  The funding agencies must also support big infrastructure at the government departments’ level, like communication, health and education.    

¨      Afghanistan also needs financial and technical assistance for government departments to strengthen them for good service delivery to the community people.