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Afghanistan

From the Department for International Development

The National Development Framework

An early priority for the Transitional Administration was to prepare a National Development Framework (NDF), setting out policy commitments and priorities for reconstruction and poverty reduction. The NDF is country-driven, focused on a limited number of priorities and looks to the long term. However, it is not a detailed or comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy, as one would expect from a HIPC country. Detailed poverty data on Afghanistan is simply not available. So it does not set over-arching targets. It has had to be drawn up rapidly to respond to Afghanistan's urgent needs. So participation in producing the Framework has been limited. "Ownership" within individual ATA ministries therefore varies. But it is an appropriate and helpful framework for long-term development in Afghanistan.

The Transitional Administration has demonstrated a clear desire to assume responsibility for the development of Afghanistan. Whilst recognising that the government has limited capacity to deliver services, the ATA wants to guide and co-ordinate donor assistance. Donors welcome this. They recently decided to wind up the donor-led Afghanistan Support Group mechanism and replace it with a government-led Consultative Group mechanism (which led to the first Afghanistan Development Forum (ADF) in March 2003). They have also responded with significant support to fund the ATA's recurrent and development budget. The challenge is to ensure this consultative process works well in practice.

The main instrument for policy co-ordination will be the National Development Budget (NDB), which was presented to donors at the ADF. The NDB translates the priorities of the NDF into specific programmes and projects, following consultation both within government, including with provincial authorities, and with donors, through Consultative Groups in each of the priority areas (see table below).

Pillar 1 - Humanitarian and Human and Social Capital Pillar 2 - Physical Reconstruction and Natural Resources Pillar 3 - Private Sector Development, Governance and Security
Refugee Return Transport and Communications Trade and Investment
Education and Vocational Training Water and Sanitation *Governance and Public Administration
Health and Nutrition Energy *Security and Rule of Law
Livelihoods and Social Protection Urban Development  
Cultural Heritage, Media and Sports Natural Resource Management

* "underlying foundations" in the NDF, but fully integrated in the NDB 

This framework is intended to ensure a both practical and strategic approach which works across government ministry boundaries to set clear objectives and priorities in each of these important areas and to co-ordinate development assistance to them. However, many of Afghanistan's complex problems span even these broad areas and need to be tackled in a multi-dimensional way.

Donors are co-ordinating with and complementing each other by focusing their efforts in a limited number of these Consultative Groups. For example, multilateral donors like the European Commission and the Asia Development Bank, to which DFID contributes resources, are focusing on areas such as health services and transport, where DFID is not heavily involved itself. Other large bilateral donors, such as the US, are focusing on education. At the same time, DFID is co-ordinating closely with the US and World Bank on public administration reform and with the European Commission and others on sustainable livelihoods.

The NDB sets out objectives for each of these priority areas. Some are more specific, quantitative and timebound than others. The Consultative Groups are analysing the NDB in more detail with the ATA, to agree benchmarks for performance, set priorities for assistance and to maintain ongoing dialogue and monitoring of progress between donors and the ATA.

The ATA has identified six National Development Programmes as first priorities for 2003/04. Five of these are infrastructure programmes in the areas of education, urban development, water, governance and transport. The sixth priority comprises a National Solidarity Programme and a national Emergency Employment Programme, designed to empower local communities and create livelihood opportunities for poor people across the whole of Afghanistan.

Gender and human rights are seen as key cross-cutting issues in the National Development Framework. It remains to be seen whether this mainstreaming approach is effective or just represents lip-service.

Addressing the cultivation of opium crop and the illicit production of narcotics is another important cross-cutting objective for Afghanistan. The UK is working closely with the ATA and other donors to mainstream a national drugs strategy across the various National Development Programmes.

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