Sector: Community Development
Region: South Asia
Funded by:
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Total Value: Canadian contribution: C$1.4 million
Afghanistan, Afghanistan Villages Development Project: July 2009–July 2010
Project Description
The purpose of the Pilot Afghanistan Village Development Project was to establish a pilot program demonstrating how participatory village level initiatives, in highly insecure environment in which they are were implemented, can be used to:
- support Canada’s strategy in Afghanistan by providing short- and medium-term developmental benefits in a sustainable manner in order to win support from the local populace;
- support Government of Afghanistan institutions in delivering services to their community members. The project involves formulation and prompt implementation of initiatives responding effectively to the needs and desires of the community.
The Pilot Afghanistan Village Development Project was implemented in Deh-e-Bagh Village in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. Agriteam met with the District Shura for Dand District, in which Deh-e-Bagh lies, with the Chairman of the Community Development Committee and with community members to verify which elements of the of the community development plan had been delivered, which were still needed and where their priorities might lie. This was a pilot program demonstrating how participatory village level initiatives, in highly insecure environment in which they were implemented, were used to: support Canada’s strategy in Afghanistan by providing short- and medium-term developmental benefits in a sustainable manner in order to win support from the local populace; and support Government of Afghanistan institutions in delivering services to their community members. The project involves formulation and prompt implementation of initiatives responding effectively to the needs and desires of the community.
The initiatives with the community and with CIDA include: domestic water supplies; enhancement of agricultural extension services in response to specific problems such as stem rust (strain Ug99) and pomegranate borer, as well as in support of other small scale-scale agricultural livestock enterprises; irrigation rehabilitation; and vocational training for young men and women. Within the framework of these initiatives specific attention was given to opportunities to engage women and improve earning opportunities that are open to them.
The approach of the assignment was from the perspective that community members want their quality of life to improve, but that they are also realistic in terms of the scope and scale of interventions. Therefore, we work with community mobilization and development workers to determine how community members wish to proceed, how they wish to stage the interventions, and what milestones will be accomplished to determine the desired level of success.
The project involves the formulation and prompt implementation of initiatives responding effectively to the needs and desires of the community. In order to establish a foundation for this project a participatory needs analysis was reqired. A needs analysis was developed using a problem tree (ZOPP)* approach undertaken in 2005 by a local NGO (Humanitarian Action for the People of Afghanistan – HAPA) with funding from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This approach was subsequently used by the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) with support from JICA, as the basis for the preparation of a community development plan. Agriteam worked with the community to validate the relevance of the previous needs analysis and identify which initiatives had already been addressed and where changes might be occurring in the community’s concepts of their needs.
*The ZOPP approach (Zielorientierte Projektplanung, or GOPP- Goal Oriented Project Planning - as it is sometimes presented in English) is used and promoted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ - German Technical Cooperation). The approach provides a systematic structure for identification, planning, and management of projects developed in a workshop setting (web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/issues…/ZOPP.html)
Project Director
Alex Schumacher
alexs@agriteam.ca