Governance ProgramsAfghanistan

COUNTRY CONTEXT FOR GOVERNANCE PROGRAMMING

Over the past decade, The Asia Foundation’s Afghanistanoffice has sought to improve the quality of governance in thecountry. The Asia Foundation defines governance as theinstitutions and processes that regulate the economy andsociety, allocate public resources, and enforce governmentdecisions. A growing body of literature suggests thatimproved governance is the single most important factor inovercoming development challenges. In Afghanistan, progresshas been made. Core state institutions have been successfullyestablished under a constitution that enjoys broad support.Executive structures are in place, despite weaknesses, and sig-nificant strides have been made in key service delivery areas,

including primary education, health services, and repatriationof refugees. Afghanistan now has a functioning IndependentElection Commission and National Assembly. Compared toconditions in 2002, slow yet significant progress has beenmade in building Afghan security forces, although potentialfor violent conflict among regional traditional factionsremains high. The Afghan government has publicly commit-ted to extend economic and security support to armed oppo-sition groups who are prepared to lay down arms, return totheir villages, and abide by the Constitution of Afghanistan.An increase in investment has led to the visible growth ofprivate enterprise and new construction in Kabul and severalsecondary cities.

ABOUT THE ASIA FOUNDATION

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit, non-governmental organizationcommitted to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, andopen Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports Asian initia-tives in five program areas: governance and law; women'sempowerment; economic development; the environment; andregional cooperation. Drawing on nearly 60 years of experience inAsia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partnersto support leadership and institutional development, exchanges,and policy research. With 17 offices throughout Asia, an office inWashington, DC, and its headquarters in San Francisco, theFoundation addresses these issues on both a country and regionallevel. In 2010, the Foundation provided more than $98 million inprogram support and distributed nearly one million books andjournals valued at over $42 million.

THE ASIA FOUNDATION IN AFGHANISTAN

The Asia Foundation has a record of sustained commitment to andsupport for the Afghan people. The Foundation established anoffice in Kabul in 1954 and conducted programs inside the countrythrough early 1980. From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s theFoundation provided support for Afghan civil society groups anddiaspora professionals through its office in Peshawar, Pakistan. In February 2002, the Foundation re-established its Kabul office to pursue programs vital to the development of post-TalibanAfghanistan. The Foundation’s Afghanistan country program spansall five core Asia Foundation program areas, along with education.The Foundation has an in-depth country knowledge gainedthrough decades of work in the country; strong working relation-ships with Afghan institutions, organizations, and individuals, bothinside and outside government; and a committed cadre of Afghanand international staff who possess the required technical exper-tise and managerial skills to design and implement a complex,multi-faceted country program.

Despite advances, Afghanistancontinues to face significant,persistent governance challenges,exacerbated by fears of waningdonor commitment. The Afghangovernment suffers from anunderdeveloped policy capacity,high levels of bureaucracy, and areliance on patronage systems.Weaknesses and gaps in formalAfghan government roles andprocesses are often filled by tra-ditional leaders and groups. The Taliban, in particular, havebeen adept at exploiting fragile local governance, resulting inthe dilution and fragmentation of state authority. Armed mil-itants continue to launch attacks both outside and inside thecapital, and the role of international forces, as a prominentsecurity actor, continues to be controversial.

The Afghan government struggles to balance domestic reali-ties with the demands of the international community.According to the Foundation’s 2011 Survey of the AfghanPeople, Afghans are most concerned about insecurity, unem-ployment, and corruption in their country. At present,Afghans have very few outlets through which to express theirviews and advocate for their interests. These factors, amongothers, erode the legitimacy of the Afghan government in theeyes of ordinary people.

THE ASIA FOUNDATION’S GOVERNANCE PROGRAM

After re-establishing its office in Kabul, The Asia Foundationpartnered with Afghan and international counterparts toimplement the most critical features of the Bonn Agreement:the Emergency Loya Jirga; Constitutional drafting and ratification; and national and provincial elections. TheFoundation helped to develop and reform key central execu-tive institutions, including the President’s Office of Chief ofStaff and Office of Administrative Affairs, and several govern-ment ministries, such as the Office of the State Minister ofParliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Ministryof Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigationand Livestock. The Foundation also responded to requestsfrom the government to provide technical support for theestablishment of the Government Media Information Center,the High Office of Oversight and the IndependentDirectorate of Local Governance (IDLG). More recently, the Foundation has collaborated with the IDLG to advance subnational governance through nationwide implementationof the Performance-Based Governors’ Fund. These state-building efforts have been complemented by other programsintended to support the critical role that Afghan civil society

organizations, the media, and reli-gious institutions can play instrengthening government account-ability and transparency.

Central to The Asia Foundation’sgovernance work Asia-wide is a“political economy” approach,which analyzes how power andresources are distributed and con-tested in a given context; implica-tions of the existing power arrange-

ments for development outcomes; and underlying interestsand incentives for change and reform. The Foundation looksbeyond formal structures and processes to those informalpractices, institutions, and norms that shape people’s behav-ior and interactions. When applied to programming, politicaleconomy analysis helps to calibrate expectations aboutresults; capitalize on opportunities and manage risks; andshape strategies that are both effective and politically feasible.

This approach is particularly relevant in fragile and conflict-affected states, where peace and state-building challenges are fundamentally political, requiring ongoing negotiation,compromise, and emphasis on practical solutions.

The Foundation has a nuanced understanding of tested bestpractices for strengthening governance in fragile states, and isdedicated to selective programming, focusing on the maincauses of instability and crucial strategic interests.

Going forward, the Foundation’s governance program supports initiatives that focus on critical needs through the following four priorities:

• Addressing the core causes of conflict and exclusion

• Strengthening state institutions and functions

• Promoting civil society and citizen engagement inincreasing government accountability and responsiveness

• Defining and developing positive leadership

By design, these four priorities are mutually reinforcing.Foundation staff and partners will strive for synergies acrossthese program areas, identifying concrete ways that efforts inone area can reinforce efforts in another. It is also importantto note that while the Foundation has a dedicated women’sempowerment program, the Foundation mainstreams genderconcerns into program design, implementation, and evalua-tion efforts in all of its other program areas.

ADDRESSING THE CORE CAUSES OF CONFLICTAND EXCLUSION

The Asia Foundation envisions a future Afghanistan that isnot simply free from overt violence. Rather, the Afghanpeople deserve to have a sustainable peace, under whichthey are afforded a fullrange of rights and free-doms, the rule of law, andaccess to a range of institu-tions and processes to assistthem to resolve disputesthrough nonviolent means.Fundamentally, achieve-ment of this vision involvesaddressing the core causesof deep-seated grievances,both within the countryand across its borders. Itrequires a shared commit-ment to peace and justice, catalyzing existing local capaci-ties for peace, and supporting processes through which alasting peace can be negotiated. It also requires supportingformal and informal vehicles for conflict resolution at alllevels, and ensuring that the rights of all Afghan men,women, and children are protected under law. Under thispriority area, the Foundation supports:

• Internal reconciliation and reintegration efforts thatbridge divides (e.g., the insurgency, North-South,ethnic and tribal)

• Cross-border peacebuilding and conflict-mitigationefforts, including between Afghanistan and Pakistan

• Widespread, inclusive participation in peace processes

• Development of formal and informal local-levelconflict resolution mechanisms

• Development, reform, and/or improved implementa-tion of laws

• Public awareness of law and human rights, includingrights within an Islamic framework

• Professionalization of the judiciary and legal profession

STRENGTHENING STATE INSTITUTIONSAND FUNCTIONS

If the Afghan state and key public institutions improvetheir capacity and demonstrate that their work is relevantto ordinary citizens, public confidence and trust in these

institutions – as well asperceptions of theirlegitimacy – willimprove. Given thatmost Afghans live inrural areas, it is alsoimportant for govern-ment to demonstratecommitment todevelopment at thesubnational level. TheAsia Foundation’s capac-ity-building efforts aregrounded in a holistic

approach that combines process improvement, appropriateuse of information and communication technology, andincreasing the technical, managerial, and leadership skillsof staff. Organizational changes are developed and imple-mented through a culturally compatible blend of best prac-tice techniques for leading and managing change to ensurelocal acceptability and ownership. At the same time, sup-port for individual agencies of the Afghan State, includingthe government, the national assembly, and the supremecourt must be clearly linked to a more coherent, coordinatednational development strategy, and the priorities that havebeen identified by both the Afghan people and by officeholders of the state. The Asia Foundation supports:

• Strengthening of policy formulation and developmentprocesses

• Improvements in planning and management

• Improvements in administrative systems and procedures

• Essential structural reforms

• Extension of governance to the subnational level,creating linkages between formal and informal struc-tures as appropriate

• Improvements in inter-state pillar and intra-govern-ment relationships

• Increasing the strategic communications capacity ofstate institutions

PROMOTING CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZEN ENGAGEMENTIN INCREASING GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY ANDRESPONSIVENESS

External public scrutiny and pressure is crucial to enhancingthe performance of public institutions and monitoring imple-mentation of reforms that are of high importance to ordinaryAfghans. Civil society groups can serve as useful, effectiveaggregators of citizen demands and provide an oversight andassessment function vis-à-vis government.

In Afghanistan, it is necessary and strategic to take a broaddefinition of civil society, reaching beyond the usual NGOsand media to include others with a stakeholder interest inreform, including public interest groups, professional andbusiness associations, and religious groups. Concurrently, it isimportant to raise public awareness of accountability, as wellas the ways in which Afghan women and men can expresstheir views to elected and appointed officials and hold themaccountable. In this priority area, the Foundation supports:

• Nationwide dialogue to strengthen understanding ofgovernment and citizens’ core duties and responsibilities

• Capacity building for civil society groups to monitor andreport on accountability

• Civil society advocacy campaigns on pressing publicissues

• Vehicles for direct citizen participation in policymaking,and other mechanisms to facilitate civic engagement

• Aggregation and strategic communication of publicopinion to policymakers through survey research andother methods

DEFINING AND DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP

Across Asia, The Asia Foundation has seen how targetedinvestments in the professional capacity and leadership skillsof established and emerging leaders from different sectors canhave a significant positive impact on national development.Not only do these leaders become more effective in theirwork, they also gain new ideas and perspectives that increasetheir commitment to necessary reforms and to the promotionof stronger collaboration and mutual respect among variousinstitutions, parties, and/or communities. In Afghanistan,this type of support for a critical mass of leaders may alsoresult in a longer-term collective shift in orientation towardmore inclusive political settlements, based on negotiation andgood faith, which ultimately define how political and eco-nomic power is organized. The Foundation’s work in the areaof leadership development cuts across its governance programareas. To meet these needs, the Foundation’s programinvolves:

• Development and wide dissemination of a shared con-cept of the values and qualities that constitute goodleadership in the Afghan context

• Targeted outreach to leaders of traditionally excludedgroups in society

• Training on leadership values, skills, and competenciesin ways that enable participants to achieve a leadership“multiplier effect” within their own teams and/orcommunities

• Facilitation of Afghan leaders’ participation in profes-sional and academic exchanges and opportunities withinthe region and globally, with exploration of appropriateand cost-effective opportunities within Afghanistan

• Mentorship programs for young leaders

• Regular convening of a cross-section of identified leadersfor frank, trust-building dialogues on critical nationaldevelopment issues

HEADQUARTERS | 465 California Street, 9th Floor | San Francisco, CA 94104 USATel: (415) 982-4640 | Fax: (415) 392-8863 | info@asiafound.org

WASHINGTON, DC | 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 815 | Washington, D.C. 20036 USATel: (202) 588-9420 | Fax: (202) 588-9409 | info@asiafound-dc.org

AFGHANISTAN | P.O Box 175 | Kabul – AfghanistanTel: +93 (0) 75 202 3558 | Email: tafag@asiafound.org

www.asiafoundation.org

In Afghanistan, The Asia Foundation’s programs receive funding from the Australian Agency for International Development, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Embassy - Afghanistan,the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, and UK Embassy, Canadian CIDA, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgian Government, the European Union, the NationalGeographic Society, the United Nations Development Program, International Trade and Labour Program - Canada, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, privatedonors, and the U.S. Congress.

11/2011