Local Governance in Afghanistan: A View from the Ground

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Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit 2011 It has taken time for provincial councils and walis to establish effective working relations with one another, and the attitude of the wali is crucial to the nature of the relationship. Alongside this, there was considerable variation in how provincial councils were perceived by other branches of government. A number of government actors saw them as rivals and rejected their approaches and suggestions. Provincial administrations complained that provincial councils should be more active in reaching out to the people. Line departments tended to view scrutiny by provincial councils as unnecessarily intrusive, while some provincial justice ministries complained that their approach to legal issues created tension between the people and government. In Jawzjan, the then wali had little time for the council and made every effort to exclude them, barring them from Provincial Development Committee meetings. Provincial party dynamics could also affect how far they were accepted—in Laghman for example, the provincial council was co-opted by factions opposed to the then wali. The precise nature of provincial council operation thus varied from province to province. Typically they form committees related to dispute resolution, rural development, human rights, shura relations, monitoring, rural development and social services (individual members sit on two or three committees each). However, provincial councils are not given information on provincial budgets and thus have little or no influence over resource allocation. One provincial council member complained that their role in planning was essentially symbolic: “Every line ministry makes their own annual plan and budget. They do not even inform the wali.” This lack of any substantive involvement in planning and budgeting was stated as being a cause of reduced motivation. As policy became clearer, and particularly after the formation of IDLG, considerable training and support has been provided by IDLG, the Afghanistan Subnational Governance Programme and NDI. In addition there were several INGO contributions to build local government capacity. While certain basic training components were delivered, capacity building varied greatly with respect to the types of training and with peripheral areas being poorly served. Gradually, provincial council facilities and equipment were being improved and to varying degrees provincial council members were seeking to improve their performance. There was a gap between the mandate given to provincial councils and the powers provided to them to exercise this mandate. As will be further discussed they have rights to request information and to be consulted but since this was not obligatory, they were often overlooked or ignored by administrations and line ministries. Although the provincial councils were required to hold local administrations and line ministries to account, they had no powers of sanction except in settling certain civil disputes. While people came to councils to seek help on issues of personal concern, it was observed that this could be used to exert rents. It is unclear to what extent this was the norm. Female councillors regularly reported instances of women bringing them problems. Some took great pains to provide support. However, as noted above, the provincial council was just one of a number of bodies where people would seek help. Provincial council members complained that the failure to give them sufficient powers and resources to exercise those powers was indicative of the value being placed upon them. The public therefore looked to central government rather than the provincial council. Walis and woluswals paid them little attention, for they had little need to do so. In general, the provincial councils suffered from a lack of motivation and low morale. Some members noted that the IDLG (to which they report) has restricted their ability to interact with the Wolesi and Meshrano Jirgas. Furthermore, it was all too easy for the distortions caused by Afghanistan’s single non-transferrable vote (SNTV) system (see Section 7.7) and electoral malpractice to produce council leaders whose primary interests were not aligned with enhancing representative governance. The research observed that councillors often felt a sense of responsibility only towards the interest groups that supported them, and there were regular examples of councillors favouring their own villages and ethnicity at the expense of attending to the needs or concerns of other districts and or groups. The observations by the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium that provincial councils either become subsumed within or sidelined from the provincial administration, or alternatively establish a type of parallel government, are well founded. 85 85 Nasrat Esmaty and Asadullah Ahmadi, “A Broken Relationship: A Study of the provincial councils and their Ability to Serve Local Governance in Afghanistan: A View from the Ground 43
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit 2011 The provincial councils have been charged with a responsibility to create a link between government and the people. The research found no evidence of provincial councils having developed communication policies to inform the public about government actions or mobilising responses towards a particular policy. In a number of instances there was evidence of council cooption, not infrequently linked to graft. There was thus a gap between the way that local government policy was being conceived and articulated by IDLG and the way that provincial council members were able to understand their function and duties and thus how they chose to apply them. 6.2 District representation There is no universally applied system for district representation in Afghanistan. The subnational governance policy paper finalised by IDLG in spring 2010 describes the nature of district governance and provides district councils with similar powers and duties at the district level as provincial councils have at the provincial level. 86 While the policy paper states that elections will take place in 2010 and that the district councils will receive sufficient funding to undertake their mandated tasks, no elections have yet been organised. Respondents cited the expense and complexity of these elections as a barrier to their implementation, along with the need to identify clear boundaries between certain districts. Despite the absence of a standardised form of district representation, there were various forms of organisation operating at the district level. The development role of the DDA has been noted in Section 5.5, but it is also intended to take on a growing role in district governance. According to NABDP programme documents, “under the Local Governance and DDA Institutionalization component, the programme hinges upon elevating the capacity of the DDA, as a community-based institution, to play a catalytic development facilitation role at the district level. This will broaden the role of the DDA, from community representative body to a multi-stakeholder coordination and oversight mechanism.” 87 This is going as close as possible to becoming a district council without actually being one. The sole formal organisations to fulfil the role of district representation in its fullest sense have been the ASOP-organised District Community Councils (DCCs) of 35-45 members. The first of these was formed in Wardak in 2008 but was shortly suspended as a result of “organisational difficulties,” not the least of which was to do with security. 88 A second phase of the programme was started in January 2010 to run until June 2012. This phase is to cover 100 districts in 18 provinces located mainly in the South and East of Afghanistan. The ASOP administration has four departments: capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, operations, and central support. It has provincial Project Management Units that facilitate the DCCs and the DDP. The management units have responsibility for shura relations, capacity building and monitoring and evaluation, and there is a liaison officer in each district. This support structure is one of the features that distinguish the DCCs from the DDAs. The second difference is that DCCs are salaried, with members receiving $125 per month. Thirdly, DCCs are directly concerned with political issues, building local government and reintegration. A DCC has three committees concerned with conflict resolution, development, and peace and security. The DCCs have been created to develop links with communities and build trust and confidence in government. They are also intended to help increase administrative efficiency and reduce the potential for corruption. To achieve this, they are meant to gather information on the concerns and needs of communities and to communicate this information and coordinate activities with government. Further, their presence aims to combat the potential for other elements to assert their authority where there is lack of effective government outreach, hence the programme’s focus on the more insecure districts of the South and East. DCCs are led by the woluswals and walis and are thus the Afghan People” (Kabul: Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium, 2010). 86 “Executive Summary,” 45. 87 “NABPD 1 st Quarter Progress Report-2010,” 5. 88 Mohammed Osman Tariq Elias, “The resurgence of the Taliban in Kabul: Logar and Wardak” in Antonio Giustozzi, Decoding the New Taliban (London: Hurst, 2009). Local Governance in Afghanistan: A View from the Ground 44
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