ICMA

Afghanistan Municipal

Strengthening Program

(2007-2010)

Activities and Results

AMSP Objective: Strengthen Provincial Capitals in

Afghanistan and Increase Citizen Confidence in

Government through . . .

Improved Public Service Delivery by Local

Governments

Expanded Capacity of Municipal Governments to

Manage and Deliver Public Services

Increased Social Participation of Afghan Youth in

Community Affairs

AMSP Locations

Municipality (Province)• Jalalabad (Nangarhar)

• Khost (Khost)

• Tirin Kot (Uruzgan)

• Bazarak (Panjsher)

• Charikar (Parwan)

• Sharana (Paktika)

• Ghazni (Ghazni)

• Gardez (Paktya)

• Kandahar (Kandahar)

• Qalat (Zabul)

• Asadabad (Kunar)

• Nili (Daykundi)

Before AMSP: Muddy, Trash-Littered Streets

Before AMSP: Unmaintained Streets and Unsanitary Street-Side

Drainage Ditches

Before AMSP: Lack of Safe Play Areas for Children

Before AMSP: Lack of Reliable Residential Water Service

AMSP Projects and Activities: A “Learning by Doing” Approach

Small-scale municipal infrastructure projects

Municipal waste management (ditch cleaning, trash collection, training, vehicles and tools)

Technical assistance

Public works

Public finance

Public administration

Municipal staff and community training

Capacity building for mayors and municipal staff

Citizen-driven strategic municipal action plans (SMAPs)

Citizen satisfaction survey

Youth and sport activities

Internet, office equipment, and furnishings for municipal offices

Project: Cobblestone Streets in Tirin Kot

Project: Ditch Repair in Sharana

Project: Women’s Market in Charikar

(U.S. Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz Pays a Visit)

Project: Providing Drinking Water to the Public in Khost

Project: Providing Residential Electric Power 6 Hours/Day in Tirin Kot

Project: Public Latrines

Activity: Training programs in English, literacy, and computer use

Activity: Providing training, vehicles, tools for infrastructure projects

Activity: Mentoring through Staff Embedded in Municipal Offices

Activity: Sports Events and Internships for Afghan Youth

Activity: Digitized base maps for municipalities and citizen-driven

strategic municipal action planning (SMAP) to chart the future

AMSP: Results 81 small-scale municipal infrastructure projects implemented in 11 cities

184,000 man-days of employment; $1.1 million paid in wages to temporary

local laborers

$4.3 million in leveraged funds from other donors

36,700 hours of training/technical assistance to partner municipalities

81 youth interns hired (19 girls, 62 boys) to assist municipal officials

5,764 youth engaged in capacity-building activities, sports, and jobs (1,234

girls, 4,530 boys)

Digitized GIS base maps prepared for AMSP municipalities

Citizen-driven strategic municipal action plans (SMAP) developed for six

cities

88,100 cubic meters of trash collected and removed

Increases in perception of municipal services and quality of life as

assessed by citizen satisfaction survey

AMSP: Publications

Municipal Governance in Afghanistan (two volumes, translated into

local languages): A detailed description of subnational governance in

Afghanistan and reference materials, including laws, decrees, and other

government legal documents

Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan: A source book for

trainers, covering 26 subjects related to municipal-level governance (e.g.,

public finance, project management, urban planning, ethics and

transparency, procurement)

What’s Next?

AMSP ended in August 2010, but its “learning by doing”

approach and many of its activities are continuing in the

Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban

Populations (RAMP UP).