Provincial councilors (PCs) in Afghanistan have seen their roles change and expand  since their offices were created four years ago. Many of them had little political experience, so they’ve had to learn on the job. NDI has played a significant role in that learning process.

There are 420 PCs who serve in Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.  Councils, which are the only democratically elected government bodies that interact with citizens at the local level, range from nine to 29 members, depending on the province’s population.  The law spells out 14 duties for PCs. Their primary responsibilities are to ensure citizens’ views are reflected in provincial development planning, monitor and evaluate development programs in the province, and manage conflict among tribes, villages and districts.  

Devin O’Shaughnessy, NDI’s resident senior program manager in Kabul, recently explained how NDI has worked to support PCs through their first four years in office and discussed the challenges that await the newly-elected and returning PCs who won seats in Afghanistan’s Aug. 20 elections.  

What specifically has NDI been doing with provincial council training?

The provincial council program has gone in two phases. The first was from 2006-2008 when we worked with 19 provincial councils in the north, central and west of the country. Our focus was on getting citizen input into the development process. We trained councilors in outreach techniques such as town hall meetings and public hearings, for example. We helped them think about how to analyze the input they received and how to make decisions on what they felt were the most serious priorities of citizens. They then drafted proposals for projects (such as bridges, schools, and roads) that were included in the provincial development plans, a sort of master planning document. That was a really useful activity in NDI’s first program.

What did the second phase entail?

The focus in the second program, implemented in 20 provinces in south and east regions from June 2008 to the present, was on monitoring and evaluation of executive entities, such as ministries and governors, at the sub-national level.  The PCs are responsible, by law, for ensuring that these sub-national entities are implementing their programs transparently and effectively.  This power, added to the provincial council law about half way through their terms, gave them more power and oversight responsibilities.

Through training and mentoring, NDI helped the PCs figure out how to oversee development in their provinces.  We walked with them through the entire process: identifying what projects were being implemented in their province, then going to the Ministry of Finance to get the relevant documentation:  the project proposal, contracting documents and tenders. Reviewing these documents allowed PCs to understand the whole process from bidding and contracting to make sure it was done transparently so the lowest bidder/highest quality contractor was selected instead of someone being chosen for political reasons or through bribes.

NDI would then sponsor visits by the councilors to inspect the projects personally.  They would travel to the project sites with the relevant documentation, bringing with them an independent expert to analyze the projects they were looking at. 

Not surprisingly, the councilors saw a lot of problems.  In some cases, the communities were not asked for their feedback on the projects, so the implementers ended up building things the communities did not need.  More often, the construction companies did a poor job, not following what was in their contracts and skimping on the quality or quantity of materials necessary for the job. 

After the PCs finished their site visits, NDI would help the PCs put together thorough reports on what they observed which they could take to the ministry responsible, the governors, the contractors themselves, construction firms, whoever it may be, and say “these are the results, and we demand that it get fixed.” 

In Nangarhar province, for example, PC members went to observe a road construction project, funded by the UN/World Food Program (WFP), in a district a few hours from the capital, Jalalabad.  Immediately they saw that the number of laborers the project was supposed to supply was much lower than promised.  In addition, the quality of the road construction was not as detailed in the original contract; the raw materials, thickness of the road’s gravel, and the compacting process were all found to be sub-par.  After questioning the contractor on site, the councilors and engineer noted their observations and drafted a detailed report on what they saw.  Afterwards, they sent copies to the WFP, the contractor, the Ministry of Public Works, and other local government officials.  Before NDI had trained them on how to properly monitor projects, they had never done this kind of activity before.

O'Shaughnessy reviews results from the Aug. 20 general elections in Afghanistan

Was there any pushback from the ministers who suddenly had provincial councilors coming to oversee their projects?

It was not surprising that some ministries were not especially happy to have the provincial councilors start to question what they were doing and how they were doing it.  That is why NDI invited representatives from the governors’ and ministries’ offices to attend our training with the PCs. This way, they knew the legal rights of the provincial councils and they knew to expect that councilors would start to ask for the ministries’ project documentation.  After the training, the ministers were more respectful and helpful to the PCs seeking information.

But inevitably this process requiring new accountability can lead to some rougher moments. If shortcomings are found, if things are not transparent, the government should be called on it, particularly since there has historically been a lot of corruption. So there will be tension and the PCs will need to look to citizens and civic groups for support. I think there is a growing understanding that the PCs need to be supported and need to play this role.

Because there was a lot of turnover among PCs in this year’s election, will the work NDI has done to train the last group of councilors lost? Or is there a system in place that will shorten the learning curve? 

In short, no; we will need to do the training again.  We hope that the government will provide additional resources to the PCs to hire professional staff in the future that can retain these lessons and skills.  Also, we are going to train ministry officials from the IDLG, the body responsible for overseeing subnational governance, so they can offer this training in the future.

The manuals and reports used in previous training sessions are all there for the new members to learn from. We are planning on offering orientation training for all 34 PCs where we will cover, in a condensed form, most of the programming we’ve done over the last three years. We’ll also provide them with written manuals that come with forms and formats they can use in conducting their work. That will help the new councilors, but they also will need encouragement and mentoring.

To further support the provincial councils, we are proposing a new program to USAID under which NDI can continue to offer PCs the necessary training and mentoring, and if possible expand the scope of our program to cover additional PC duties and responsibilities such as conflict management, poppy eradication, peace-building, and environmental protection.  We’d also like to expand our internship program, previously funded by the NED, which helps students and recent graduates get involved in public service and offers PCs desperately needed staff support.  We would also like to encourage the PCs to reach out more to civil society groups to ensure their input is included in provincial development planning.

Pictured above: Devin O'Shaughnessy

Published December 3, 2009