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Selected World Bank Achievements in Afghanistan

Building Institutions: The Capacity Building for Results (CBR) Facility supports government in developing its internal human capacity, organizational structures, and functions over the medium term to improve service delivery to the population. CBR promotes accountability in line ministries by introducing results-based reform and services improvement programs. CBR is also one of the key tools for the government to reduce reliance on external technical assistance and parallel structures. The grant helps finance the costs associated with (i) technical assistance for preparation and implementation of capacity building programs; (ii) recruitment of some 1,500 managerial, common function, and professional staff for key positions in selected line ministries; (iii) a management internship program; (iv) training of civil servants; and (v) project management, monitoring, and evaluation.

CBR is demand driven and open to all line ministries and independent agencies. Based on pre-agreed criteria, including service delivery potential and reform readiness, line ministries and agencies are grouped as either Category 1 (high priority) or Category 2. Of the advertised CBR positions, 929 have been contracted to date, 70 of whom are women (7 percent of contracted positions), with another 348 recruitments at various stages of quality review and approval. CBR is also assisting salary harmonization for donor-funded consultants embedded in or working in support of government.

Education: The Higher Education Development Project (HEDP) aims to increase access to higher education in Afghanistan, as well as improve its quality and relevance. HEDP uses an Investment Project Financing instrument based on the Results-based Financing modality. Enrollment in key priority disciplines (those that contribute to economic and social development) has increased substantially from 64,200 at the project baseline to about 79,400 this year. The special focus on increasing female enrollment has also paid substantial dividends with female enrollment increasing from 11,400 to approximately 15,000 for the current academic year.

The Skills Development Program revived two key institutions in Kabul: the National Institute of Management and Administration (NIMA) that prepares young professionals to acquire junior-level jobs in the public and private sectors; and the National Institute of Music that trains gifted young musicians, establishing a nurturing platform for music in the country. Under the Afghanistan Second Skills Development Program, 100 national occupational skills standards have been benchmarked to an international level with the support of an international certification agency, and corresponding curricula developed for 15 trades.

The project is financing an academic partnership contract with Pune University in India to enable 20 faculty members from NIMA to undertake masters degree courses. A series of memorandum of understanding is also being finalized with other host institutions in India to provide one-year diploma courses in specific trades to some 75 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) teachers selected through a competitive process. In addition, over 522 TVET graduates have been supported with scholarships through a voucher program, which facilitates further professional studies for meritorious students who have graduated from TVET institutes.

Financial Sector: The Access to Finance Project aims to build institutional capacity to improve access to credit of micro, small, and medium enterprises. The Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) has initiated a series of activities, in particular the scaling up of the Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program. The TUP program has been completed in four provinces (Balkh, Kunar, Laghman, and Takhar) and is ongoing in two more provinces (Kabul and Kandahar). A project restructuring is being initiated to extend the TUP program to two more provinces and to engage on important topics, including digital financial services.

Health: Bringing most of the efforts in public health service delivery under one umbrella in Afghanistan, the Sehatmandi (Health) Project aims to increase the utilization and quality of health, nutrition, and family planning services across Afghanistan. The project supports implementation of a Basic Package of Health Services and an Essential Package of Hospital Services through contracting arrangements across the country. Sehatmandi also supports efforts to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Public Health at central and provincial levels to effectively carry out its stewardship functions.

Health indicators saw an improvement with the support of the System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition Program, the precursor of the Sehatmandi Project. For example, the newborn mortality rate fell 32 percent from 53 to 36 per 1,000 live births from 2000 to 2015; the number of functioning health facilities increased from 496 in 2002 to more than 2,800 in 2018, while the proportion of facilities with female staff increased; and births attended by skilled health personnel among the lowest income quintile increased from 15.6 percent to 50.5 percent.

Horticulture and Livestock: The ARTF supported the National Horticulture and Livestock Project to promote the adoption of improved technologies by target farmers in the horticultural sector and to support the livestock sector, with gradual rollout of farmer-centric agricultural services systems and investment support. The project has financed the establishment of 16,750 hectares (ha) of new pistachio and fruit orchards in 32 provinces. In addition, over 90,000 ha of existing orchards have been rehabilitated and some 96,000 kitchen gardening schemes established.

The project has also supported construction of 1,037 small water harvesting structures, improving farmers resilience to weather changes by allowing harvest and storage of water during the rainy season and gradual release in the growing period based on crop needs. A total of 997 raisin drying houses has been constructed on a cost-sharing basis to reduce post-harvest losses of grapes and improve the quality of raisins produced.

Regarding livestock activities, NHLP continues to focus on key activities, including poultry production and animal health and extension services, while expanding work programs to other areas such as fishery and dairy. To date, the project has supported 122,840 farmers (78,968 women and 43,872 men), clustering them into producers groups to benefit from animal production and health services.

Irrigation: With over 85 percent of rural population relying on agriculture, irrigation remains a pressing need in rural Afghanistan. The Irrigation Restoration and Development Project (IRDP) envisages support to rehabilitate irrigation systems serving some 215,000 hectares of land and for the design of a limited number of small multi-purpose dams and related works, while establishing hydro-meteorological facilities and services. In the irrigation component, a total of 181 irrigation schemes has been rehabilitated, covering over 190,000 hectares of irrigation command area (compared to the end project target of 215,000 hectares and over 402,000 farmer households).

In the small dam component, a pre-feasibility review of 22 small dams resulted in a feasibility study being conducted on the six best ranked dams in the northern river basin (which is not on international rivers). In the hydro-met component, installation of 127 hydrological stations and 56 snow and meteorological stations located in various locations on the five river basins in the country is ongoing. In addition, 40 cableway stations for flow measurement at selected hydrology stations have been installed.

The Afghanistan On-Farm Water Management Project aims to improve agricultural productivity in project areas by enhancing the efficiency of water use. To date, land productivity of wheat and other crops has increased by 1520 percent. Water productivity of wheat and other crops increased 15 percent, and the irrigated area increased by 20 percent. Physical rehabilitation of irrigation schemes exceeded its target with good quality and within the project budget allocation and timeline: 207 irrigation schemes (mostly informal) have been rehabilitated, covering a total of 52,000 hectares of irrigation command area.

Rural Development: Improving access to basic services and facilities through secondary and tertiary roads, the Afghanistan Rural Access Project will increase the number of people living within two kilometers (km) of feeder roads and reduce travel time to essential services. To date, more than 2,000 km of rural roads and related drainage structures have been upgraded or rehabilitated through four projects under these programs financed through IDA, ARTF, and other funds.

Rural Enterprise: Since its inception, the Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Project (AREDP) has established 5,450 Savings Groups with a membership of some 61,460 rural poor (54 percent women) in 694 villages. The SGs have saved over $5.56 million and members have accessed more than 52,450 internal loans (65 percent by female members) for productive and emergency purposes with a repayment rate of 95 percent.

To generate economies of scale, 524 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) have been established as federations of the SGs. The VSLAs maintain accurate and up-to-date records of accounts with a good governance structure in place. On average, each VSLA has $4,335 as loanable capital, which is further boosted with a seed grant injection. This improves access to finance for group members who would like to increase productivity or engage in entrepreneurial activities but cannot access such funds from commercial banks or microfinance institutions.

AREDP also works toward strengthening market linkages and value chains for rural enterprises by providing technical support to 1,338 Enterprise Groups (63 percent female) and 657 small and medium enterprises (15 percent female) that have been selected for their potential as key drivers of rural employment and income generation.

Social Service Delivery: The Citizens Charter Afghanistan Project (Citizens Charter) is the successor to the highly successful National Solidarity Programme (NSP), which introduced a community-driven development approach toward rural infrastructure and service delivery and reached about 35,000 communities over 14 years. The Citizens Charter supports the first phase of the Government of Afghanistans 10-year Citizens Charter National Program and will target one-third of the country. The Citizens Charter aims to improve the delivery of core infrastructure and social services to participating communities through strengthened Community Development Councils (CDCs). These services are part of a minimum service standards package that the government is committed to delivering to the citizens of Afghanistan.

Implementation progress includes:

In rural areas: Over 8,400 community profiles (CPs) completed; more than 8,150 new CDCs elected; over 6,900 Community Development Plans (CDPs) completed; and more than 5,700 sub-project proposals prepared.

In urban areas: Implementation has been rolled out in over 666 communities. A total of 633 CPs completed; 633 CDCs elected; 592 CDPs completed; and 509 sub-project proposals approved.

Results expected under the first phase of the Citizens Charter include: (i) 10 million Afghans reached; (ii) 3.4 million people gaining access to clean drinking water; (iii) improvements to quality of service delivery in health, education, rural roads, and electrification; (iv) increase in citizen satisfaction and trust in government; and (v) 35 percent return on investment for infrastructure projects.

Last Updated:Oct 02, 2018

Read more:
Afghanistan Overview - worldbank.org