Kabul Urban Survey - Groupe URD

- Establishing which area rehabilitation projects will be implemented, i.e. Area
Development Plans (ADP), is a major problem. The different administrative boundaries
have not been clearly identified at the different levels. The lack of consensus over city,
district and gozar boundaries has not yet been resolved. Additionally, the gozar, the
smallest administrative division, is still too big for managing a rehabilitation project at the
community level, in terms of cost, time and social issues.
• Community-based urban development
Some pilot programmes have been launched by UN-HABITAT, with EC support, covering
roughly 300 families. Two projects have been conducted in Districts 6 and 7. The choice of
beneficiaries was made on the basis of families that need to regularise their land tenure in
administrative terms. Some people have lived in this area for several decades although legal
land occupation was rural thirty years ago. Given that this area is relatively flat, it was also
considered simpler to test the process in this district, rather than in the hill settlements.
The upgrading of informal settlements has been the subject of the “Urban upgrading Project
– Kabul funding”, a pilot operation with the complex process detailed below:
Target population 49
- Settlements where the inhabitants are without secure tenure and limited access to
essential urban infrastructure services.
- Settlements where a significant portion of inhabitants will be returnees and IDPs.
- Partners of the project
- MUD, KM, UN-Habitat EC and community.
Outcomes of the project:
- “ Increase access to essential urban services
- Increase Security of tenure
- Strengthened capacity of communities
- Broader-based representation inside community’s decision making
- Establishment of transparent process
The social objectives:
- To enable household to address their immediate and pressing needs for infrastructure,
shelter and basic services
- Establishing or strengthening local governance institutions that support their integration
into the city fabric
- To create opportunities and remove obstacles which impede the flow of people’s
investment in housing and related services (as insecurity of tenure)
Different phases
- Phase 1: Identification of boundaries and establishment of groups (key contact)
- Phase 2: Establishment of Development Council
- Phase 3: Preparation of CAP (Community Initiative project)
- Phase 4: Design and Proposal preparation (with help of engineers from MUDH, KM,
submitting, and contracting for implantation.
- Phase 5: Implementation of the projects (using local resources)
Comments
A coordination process is required
With so many actors, issues and the complications of spatial management, it is
essential that roles and responsibilities are allocated appropriately and that good
coordination mechanisms are set up. Managing an urban vision, urban strategies,
urban planning, urban programmes and urban projects requires multiple efforts of
information, consultation, participation and coordination.
49 Urban Upgrading project –Kabul, EC Funding 2004, taken from a powerpoint presentation
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