Banking on Communities

	In little more than a year the National Solidarity Program has reached over 6,000 villages.

January 10, 2005—"Afghanistan is not a post-conflict country. The conflict is ongoing. There are about 18,000 US troops on the ground. There's still conflict in the eastern and southern parts of the country and the new government has very little real authority outside of the capital, Kabul. Parts of the country are still dominated by warlords. It's a pretty lawless situation."

Water Comes First

Despite security concerns, when it comes to local communities deciding their priorities, water and repairs to irrigation have topped the list.

"If you go into a village, everyone there will say that water comes first," Christensen says.

The water's needed not only for agriculture - a foundation of the economy - but also for building houses, which are made of mud.

This well in the Baghlan province is one of 4,500 projects currently under development.

Another priority identified by the communities has been the provisions to build roads. The villages need access to bring in supplies like fertilizer, as well as to send their products for sale. Easy access to hospitals also remains a pressing need. 

In the mountainous regions, Christensen says a priority has been rural energy - villages in areas where the topography lends itself to micro-hydro projects have been voting to undertaken those schemes.

A Community Benefit

Christensen says the clear benefit of the NSP project is that it's the local community -through its elected council -- managing the money and implementing the project with either local labor or sub-contracting.

"They manage the process and the money, so it's building skills and capacity within the communities," he says

Clare Lockhart, who was closely involved in setting up the program, says giving the communities block grants ensures there's no "middle men" with expensive overheads administering the projects.

But the biggest advantage she sees is that NSP facilitates a process in villages which brings all the stakeholders together to work on projects and strategies at the local level.

	In little more than a year, the NSP project has reached just over 6,000 villages and facilitated the election of 5,800 local councils. So far, $94 million committed for 4,500 locally approved projects and $52 million has been dispersed.

"Many villagers have commented that the facilitation is even more valuable to them than the block grant, as it has helped them to re-establish a sense of community, prioritize their needs and put in place a plan for rebuilding their villages, especially in areas where there were a number of refugee returns, " she says.

Windows for Women

The program has also had a rather unique impact: It has afforded women an opportunity to be involved in electing the local development councils.

"It has not been an easy thing in a conservative Muslim society," Christensen says.

"We've had a fantastic and surprising rate of women participating in the voting process. In some cases, more women than men have turned out to vote, which has been surprising to everyone," he says. 

High voter turn out does not, however, always translated into women having influence in local projects, so a portion of the block grants have been set aside specifically to help women.

"There is a hunger for participation in deciding their future - as women have been marginalized here for so long," explains Christensen. "It was felt there was a need to open up possibilities for women to directly benefit from projects."

The disabled are also being targeted, as after 25 years of conflict, Afghanistan has a large number of people who're disabled or maimed.

In a village in Andarab, in the country's northern Baghlan province, the local council is giving goats to the poorest and most vulnerable in the village  - so they can try and earn an income.

Christensen who's just returned from visiting that village cites it as one place where there has been a remarkable turnaround in attitude on the part of the inhabitants.

"When I first went there in July, they were all quite reserved. They were not forthcoming at all. Now, seeing a project is delivered, the atmosphere has changed quite dramatically. They were all much more open and positive."

It was clearly a different but welcome response.