Governance and the Public Sector in Afghanistan

1. The 2010 London and Kabul International Conferences on Afghanistan marked a turning point in perceptions on Afghanistan’s challenges with the collective recognition by the government and international community that a radically different approach was required to secure the country and deliver on development goals. A Government led action plan was endorsed for improved governance, economic and social development and security within the framework of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy. This facility will address critical aspects of the key priority areas over the next five years.

2. Since 2003, the establishment of a more effective civil service has been one of the government’s priorities. The World Bank and other development partners have supported a number of civil service measures and programs to ‘inject’ capacity over the short- to medium-term. The World Bank’s financed Emergency Public Administration Projects (EPAP I and II) provided assistance for the government’s emerging Public Administration Reform Program. This involved support for the Establishment of the Independent Administration Reform and the Civil Service Commission (IARCSC) with a mandate to lead on civil service reforms. A central feature of initial reforms was the Priority Reform and Restructuring (PRR) process which enabled staff in selected key departments and agencies appointed through merit to be placed on an elevated pay scale for a fixed term in exchange for restructuring. Other critical activities included developing the legislative agenda and introducing appointments based on merit.

3. The on-going IDA Civil Service Reform Project (CSRP) and USAID funded Civil Service Support (ACSS) project are assisting the government to implement system-wide pay and grading reform, to build the HR capacity of selected ministries, to establish a Human Resource Management Information System and to design and deliver training courses in common functions. Capacity injection into the civil service has been provided previously through the Afghan Expatriate and Lateral Entry Programs and now their successor, Management Capacity Program (MCP). International technical assistance is being provided through the Civilian Technical Assistance Program (CTAP). Other Bank, ARTF and donor-financed programs in public financial management have contributed to improving budget practices and oversight across government.

4. Although these reforms have resulted in some positive outcomes, they have not resulted in the development of sustainable civil service capacity, even factoring in that building human and institutional capacity takes time. The costly technical assistance and capacity building initiatives have been supply driven, loosely connected, uncoordinated and largely unaligned to supporting a ministry’s budget execution and service delivery targets. Reforms have overall had little impact on the functioning of the provincial and district offices of line ministries. Services that are being delivered are largely coordinated by the ‘second civil service’ – national project staff and civil servants receiving salary top-ups, both in management and sector specific professional skills.

5. A new ARTF financed public sector project will support the implementation of critical elements of the Government’s priority reforms as agreed in the Kabul Conference and to be overseen by the Governance Cluster. The project will build upon previous reform efforts and will aim to deliver clear mandates of government entities by focusing their organization, staff and resources on well-defined objectives. It will progressively build a capable civil service by providing incentives to attract qualified management and technical staff into the civil service, creating an enabling environment that supports performance, rewards achievement of results and progressively reduces reliance on the ‘second civil service’ and expensive technical assistance. At same time there will be a shift away from a ‘supply’ of reforms driven by central agencies intended to reform the entire civil service to a more strategic demand driven approach which supports ministries that demonstrate clear leadership and a willingness to own, design and implement strategic reforms. A comprehensive package of assistance will be provided to a ministry to support its reform proposal based on its specific capacity needs to achieve budget execution and service delivery targets.

Last updated February 2011