Civil Society Growth in Afghanistan

Progress and Challenges

Hafizullah Sajed
Enrollment Number: A1920115172 (el)

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of

MBA
at the
Amity Directorate of Distance & Online Education
Amity University, Noida

Sep 2017
Abstract:

Over the past one and half decade the Afghanistan civil organizations had significant
growth and were struggling with many challenges as well.
The fall of Taliban regime and establishment of the Afghan Transitional Government,
and then new Afghan Democratic Government in 2002 was a turning point for the
Afghan Civil Society growth.
The international community support and attention were focused on the post war
Afghanistan reconstruction and a very new and young government were established
by the support of international community, this given an opportunity for the Afghan
civil society to dramatically emerge and grow fast.
The international community abundant financial supports, enabled the Afghan Civil
Society organization to build their capacities, establish management systems, support
their operation and implement different projects in education, health, agriculture,
human right awareness, media, and peacebuilding.
By the support of the international community the Afghan Civil society organization
could establish relation with the international civil society networks throughout the
world. There were many exposure visits and meetings between them which facilitated
a learning flow from the experience international civil society to the young Afghan
civil Society.
This study reflecting 1) the growth of the Afghan civil society in the last fifteen years
one and half decade 2) the key and major challenges they are facing now, and 3)
recommendation on the situation and enabling environment can be improved for
them.
A sample of the civil organizations (CSOs) including large experienced and well
established non for profit organizations, Associations, smaller community based
organization, intermediate civil society organizations and umbrella organization such
ACBAR were selected for this study.
Direct interviews were conducted with the representatives of the civil society
organizations, civil society activist, a questionnaire is used as a tool to structure the
interview and keep focus on the objectives of this study.
Due to limitation and bad security the researcher could not travelled to the CSOs
located in provinces but they could share information in response of contacting them.
Overall the study was very well completed with and revealed very important
information and recommendations for improvement of the Afghan Civil Society. At
the end of this study generated solid key recommendations for Government of
Afghanistan Officials (CSO key stakeholder), for civil society players, and for Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan as one of civil society supporters.
For a developed and vibrant Afghan Civil Society the concerned Afghan Governmental
officials and civil society organizations should consider the recommendations
generated at the end of this study report which can ensure viability and smooth
growth of civil society in Afghanistan.
Acknowledgment:

Herby the researcher wants to extend his gratitude to Ms. Marissa Spineli the Head of
Civil Society and Capacity Development Unit of the Swedish Committee for
Afghanistan (SCA) for her kind support and guidance throughout the completion of
this study. Her advice and feedbacks were really important and contributed to the
successful completion of this study.
Special thanks to the Mustafa Sddiqi the SCA civil society coordinator, and Syed Ahmad
Yama Kashifi the civil society senior officer of SCA for their support in providing
information specially in selection of the research sample and introducing me to the
civil society organizations.
At the end I would like to thank all the generous interviewees and the civil society
organizations directors, staff who responded my long questions, and give their
valuable time attending interviews, and shared the information.
 List of Abbreviations

ACBAR Afghan Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief

ACEP Afghanistan civic engagement project
ACEP Afghanistan Civic Engagment Project .
ACSFo Afghan Civil Society Forum
ACSFO Afghan Civil Society Forum Organization
ACSONP Afghan Civil Society Organizations Network for
Peace
ADA Afghanistan Development Association
ADNS Afghan National Development Strategy
ADVS Afghanistan Disabled and Vulnerable Society
AGT Afghanistan Green Trend
AMSU Afghanistan Medicine Service Union
ANCB Afghan NGOs Coordination Body
ANSF Afghan National Security Forces
APAP Parliamentarian Assistance Project
APHA Afghanistan Private Hospital Association
ARTF Afghanistan Reconstraction Fund
ASGP Ambassadors Small Grant Program
ASGP Ambassadors Small Grant Program
AWAC Afghan Women Advocacy Coalition
AWAC Afghan Womens Advocacy Coalitions
AWEC Afghan Womens Educational Center
AWN Afghan Womens Net Work
AWRC Afghan Women Resource Center
BAOPHR Better Afghanistan Organization for Peace and
Human Rights
BPHS Basic Package of Health Services
CBR Community Based Rehabilitation
CCD Community Center for Disabled
CDC Community Development Councils
CDTAs Capacity Development Technical Assistant
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination against Women
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CPAN Child Protection Network
CS civil society
CSHRN Civil & Human Right Net Work
CSOs civil society organizations
CVs Community Volunteers
DFID Department for International Development
DPOs Disabled People Organizations
DQG Da Qanoon Ghoshtunky
DSCG Disability Stakeholder Coordination Group
ECW Education Center for Women
EPHS Essential Health Package Services
FEFA Free and Fair Election Foundation
GIRoA Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
HI Handicap international
HMIS Hospitals Management Information System
HPP Health Policy Project
HQ Head Quarter HQ
HRM Human Resources Management
ICNL International Center for Non- for Profit Law
IDDP International Day of Persons with Disabilities
INSO International NGOs Safety Organization
I-PACS Initiative to promote Afghan Civil Society
ISO Intermediary Service Organization
ISO Intermediary Service Organization)
IWA Integrity Watch Afghanistan
JICA Japan through Japan International Cooperation
Agency
MOE Ministry of Economy
MoPH Ministry of Public Health
MoJ Ministry of Justice
MoLSAMD Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled
MRS Minimum Required Standards
NAP National Action Plan
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NPP National Priority Programs
NSP National Solidarity Program
PDC Provincial Development Council
PwDs people with disability
SCA Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
SDO Sanaee Development Organization
SIGAR Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction
SWABAC South Western Afghanistan and Baluchistan
Association
SWAN South Asia Women Network
TEFA Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan.
UNCRPD United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities
USAID United State Agency for International Development
WHO World Health Organization
 Table of Contents
Chapter I .................................................................................................................................. 8
Introduction:............................................................................................................................. 8
Chapter II .............................................................................................................................. 10
Theoretical Perspective: ......................................................................................................... 10
Chapter III............................................................................................................................. 12
Objective & Scope: ................................................................................................................ 12
Methodology: ......................................................................................................................... 13
Chapter - IV ............................................................................................................................. 15
Findings ................................................................................................................................. 15
Community Center for Disabled (CCD) ............................................................................ 16
Afghan Womens Educational Center (AWEC):............................................................... 23
Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) ................................................ 34
Afghanistan Private Hospital Association (APHA): ......................................................... 45
Afghanistan Medicine Service Union (AMSU): ............................................................... 48
Better Afghanistan Organization for Peace and Human Rights (BAOPHR) .................... 51
A Review of the Civil Society History in Afghanistan: .................................................... 53
Understanding of Civil Society in Afghanistan: ................................................................ 55
Position of Civil Society Organizations in Afghanistan: ................................................... 57
Types of Civil Society Organizations: ............................................................................... 59
Civil Society and Islam: ..................................................................................................... 64
Role and functions of Civil Society Organizations in Afghanistan ................................... 65
Enabling Environment for Civil Society Organization ..................................................... 69
Donors and International Community Role in Afghan Civil Society Developent ............ 74
Afghanistan Inistitute for Civil Society (AICS) ................................................................ 77
Internal Capacity of the Afghan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) .............................. 79
Civil Society Challenges:....................................................................................................... 84
Insecurity ........................................................................................................................... 84
Corruption .......................................................................................................................... 85
Non-Professional Staff ....................................................................................................... 86
Warlord / threat when advocating for people specially media organization ..................... 86
CSO-Government Weak Relation: .................................................................................... 87
Nepotism/and Favoritism ................................................................................................... 89
Lack of funding .................................................................................................................. 89
Public and CSO relation/ miss trust ................................................................................... 90
 Low Capacity (internal management, project management, fundraising, reporting and
fulfilling the donors requirements) ................................................................................... 91
Weak relation with the private sector (for financial sustainability)................................... 92
Chapter V .............................................................................................................................. 93
Recommendations:................................................................................................................. 93
For Civil Society Organizations: ....................................................................................... 93
To the Government: ........................................................................................................... 94
To the Donors: ................................................................................................................... 95
To Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) ................................................................ 95
Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................ 96
References ................................................................................................................................. 97

Chapter I

Introduction:
The term Civil Society does not have an agreed and common definitions among people
in Afghanistan. According to the definition of the Oxford Dictionary civil society is
defined as: a community of citizens linked by common interest and collective
activities.
In Afghanistan the civil society concept is defined as arena between Government and
citizens where different groups from the community, and individuals are coming
together with common interest. It is group of volunteers with common values, interest
and purpose.

According to the C. Spurk the civil society concept refers to the volunteer group of
people doing seven main functions of protection of citizen from the negative effect
of the Government strict and rigorous policy and regulations, Monitoring from the
Government activities and keeping it accountable , doing advocacy in behalf or with
its constituencies, socialization and community building such as informing citizens
from their rights, being as a bridge between Government and citizen and making
liaisons with political system and grass root level, and service delivery.

Civil Society concept in Afghanistan has used from many decades, but in different
name and forms. From very yearly there were group of people who were voluntarily
working, coming to gather and defending from the right of the people who affected.
We can name as an example Khodaee Khidmat Gar Movement led by Khan Abdul
Ghafar Khan who was defending from the right of Pushtoon people, and those who
were affected by the negative impact of that time Government.

There were many local groups formal and informal, emerged from the grass root level
working for the benefit of a specific group, they were in forms of local councils (called
Shura, and Jirga in Afghanistan) and were advocating in behalf of affected people,
asking for the right of the people, making liaison with local government, and was
deciding important decision which as affecting a large group of people.

Mostly these structures (civil society organizations) were not formal, not registered
with government, and mostly only people and its constituencies were knowing about
them but it was not recognized by Government. The way they were operation was too
informal, and was based on the local values, and culture.

There was nothing of the internal system, regulations, management, and so on within
these structures, there was not a policy or regulation by the government to regulate
the work of civil society in Afghanistan.

During the Taliban Regime 1995-2001 the condition was too strict and everyone from
the civil society or who was acting as civil society activist was assuming as members
of foreign intelligence, fortunately group of Afghans out of Afghanistan were came
together to help with disasters , and established civil society organizations in form of
Non-Governmental organizations, welfare organization, associations, unions,etc.,
and started supporting Afghans and disaster affected people from out of the country,
and mostly was supporting Afghani refugees when they were residents in Pakistan,
Tajikistan, and Iran and providing support and welfare services such as food, cloth,
home commodities , tents, school and education classes.
The concept of modern civil society and its rising role in important national decisions
and service delivery especially in development started after fall of Taliban Regime in
2001, when NATO force came to Afghanistan and external donors lunched its
developmental programs to support disaster affected communities in Afghanistan with
welfare services and developmental programs.

The concept of modern civil society organizations began in 2001, and has many ups
and down throughout the years up to now, but generally the role, capacity and
viability of civil society organization in Afghanistan increased in last one and half
decade and is still increasing. This project study is focusing on this progress of civil
society organizations and the challenges they faced throughout this period and at the
end provide specific recommendations for both Government and civil society actors
how to progress.

Chapter II

Theoretical Perspective:
Civil Society growth started after the fall of Taliban Regime in Kabul in 2001, and
structured based the on the need of the time, and large donors interest.
During the first Bunn Conference which was organized on future of the Afghanistan
Government; all stakeholders from the Afghan Community (the representative of
political parties, influenced Afghan individuals from all over the world, civil society
organization representatives, and war engaged parties excluding Taliban and Hezibe
Islami) attended the conference. The voices of development world denounced the
less representation of the civil actors and players in this important decision making
conference on the future of Afghanistan.

Following that event, international community, and through their developmental

programs started supporting Afghanistan civil society. Many civil society players, in
different from (Non-Governmental Organizations, unions, associations, volunteer
groups,) newly emerged, established their vision, offices, and came in to being.

Meanwhile there was a misconception about the NGO and CSO (Civil Society
Organizations), since it was a new practice therefore people were confused on the
terms of CSO, NGO, and civil society (CS), while NGOs are a type of CSO, and civil
society is broader term which includes all the structured formal and informal
organizations, out of the government and private sector and working for the
community benefits.

Most of the donors and international organization were working with NGOs since they
were formal registered organizations with Ministry of Economy, and was subject to a
certain requirements, such as reporting to Government and undertaking project
aligned with the Government National Priority Programs (NPP).

There were a certain of other types of the civil society organization such as Unions,
Associations, Youth Groups, Community Elder, Community Councils, Local Peace
Councils, Traditional organization who registered with the Ministry of Justice, and
Ministry of Information Culture, but was not assumed part of the civil society , donors
were funding them, but later on after practice of civil society improved Government
issued a decree and they were recognized eligible organization of civil society and for
funding by donors.

Now there is a common understand that all of the above type of organizations and
those Non-Governmental organizations working for non-profit are part of the civil
society.

Still there is different views on inclusion of the political organization as part of civil
society. Some civil society experts are thinking that political parties are part of civil
society until they get the in to the Government through election or any other political
deal, but some of them are against this concept. The overall understanding is that
political parties/organizations cant be part of civil society since here in Afghanistan
almost all of the political parties have their members as part of government, which is
a strong justification for those people are saying the political parties are not part of
civil society.

Chapter III

Objective & Scope:

Below are the specific objectives of this study.

1. To reflect on the growth and strength of the civil society organization ( NGOs,
Community based organization, associations, unions, community councils,
community based organization, youth group, peace councilsetc) from 2001
 up to now and very specifically it would highlight their organizational
development, ( system , staff, use of technology, planning and management ,
governance, communication ).

2. To reflect on available challenge against the civil society organization

specifically related to their organizational development, and enabling
working environment for them.

3. To generate practical and realistic recommendations for growth of the Afghan

civil society organizations, and their sustainability both to the civil society
organizations and government for short, intermediate and long term.

The contents of this study report is focused around three above objectives, starting
from the 2002 which is a turning point in the history of Afghan Civil Society, how
dramatically grow fast, and then the challenges face as a young civil society. At the
end there solid recommendation for Afghan civil society, Government of Afghanistan,
and SCA on how to support the CSOs.

Methodology:

The researcher used different methodologies for data gathering and analyzing data.
Structured and semi structure interviews with the experts working with civil society
strengthening programs conducted. They are selected as primary data sources and
the sample of these interviews are selected in a manner to represent the status of
civil society organization from all over the country. It means these interviewees were
working with different geographical areas in Afghanistan with civil society
organizations.
A sample of civil society organization including small , and large well established were
selected and visited, interviews were conducted with their key staff in management,
and their operation units and service delivery staff who are located in the first line in
contact with their main customers. Data gathered through questionnaires, and forms.
Three organizations among the sample Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief
ACBAR, and Community Center for Disabled (CCD) shared information in response to
the questionnaire sent them. The required information is picked from the different
pieces of the reports and other documents and put in this study report under chapter-
V.
The interview questionnaire had seven part, 1) The general information about the
interviewee, his/her role and main responsibility in organization, 2) his/her
understanding form the current status of the Afghan Civil Society Organization, 3)
Strength and weakness of the Afghan Civil Society Organizations, 4) Civil growth and
progress over the last decade, 5) civil society position and role in Afghanistan
development 6) Civil society organizations relation with Government 7) Challenges
and 8) Major engagement, structure, services, 9) Policy and procedure, complaint
management, 10) Net working and external relation 11) recommendation of
interviewee on how the relation and overall situation of civil society growth can be
improved.

Since the type and nature of civil society organization are different in Afghanistan
therefore, during selecting of sample of civil society organizations, a sample selected
which contains variety types of civils society organizations from national NGOs, small
local NGOs, local community based organizations, peace and youth groups,
community development councils, and association.

Since the government of Afghanistan is a concerned stakeholder of civil society

because of it extensive interaction, therefore concerned governmental officials from
Ministry of Economy, Directorate of NGOs were interviewed.

Totally 5 direct interviews conducted which members of civil society organizations

members 3 interview with individual civil society activist, and 2 interview with
Governmental Officials.
There are a couple of organizations and projects are going or were recently
implemented by international organizations such as USAID Afghanistan, DFID
Afghanistan, for strengthening of civil society organization, there reports on progress
of the civil society capacity were reviewed and used as secondary data sources for
this research.

There are a couple of civil society coordination body and umbrella organization who
are working as plate form for civil society organization in Afghanistan their reports
and website were reviewed as secondary data source for this research. These
coordination bodies include Agency Coordination Body for Afghan Relief and
Development (ACBAR), Afghan Civil Society Forum Organization (ACSFO), Afghan
Womens Net Work (AWN), Afghan NGOs Coordination Body (ANCB) and Civil & Human
Right Net Work (CSHRN).

As limitation for research I could not travel to the out of Kabul province for data
gathering, instead I used skype meeting, with the civil society representatives, and
other interviewees who were out of Kabul or not available for interview such as CCD,
ACBAR, and I could not physically met them in person, but I got response for the
questions sent them.

Chapter - IV
Findings
Community Center for Disabled (CCD)
Email: ccd_kabul@yahoo.com
Contact Phone: +93 799 21 58 20
CCD is a non-governmental disability organization with 9 year experience working in
disability sector in Afghanistan.
CCD, whose staffs is 70% people with disability (PwDs), is the only disability umbrella
organization working in Kabul with 7 associate partners, 57 community volunteers and
a referral network of 127 organizations providing advocacy and inclusion services to
PwDs. This organization started as a small project by Handicap international (HI) in
2004, developed as a strategic business unit with more donor appreciation through
2005 and 2006. In 2007, CCD was registered as an independent organization, re-
engineered and developed throughout 2007-2010 with technical support from HI. The
main activities of CCD are advocacy for the rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)
and the socio-economic inclusion of PwDs in Afghan society. CCD plays a vital role in
lobbying for approval and implementation of national policies: Afghan Law on the
Rights and Benefits of Disability; Afghanistan National Disability Action Plan; National
Priority Program; revised Afghan Election Law; United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD); and the Afghan National Development
Strategy (ANDS). Influencing the policies and strategies of different networks,
organizations and government to include the needs and issues of PwDs is a major
advocacy strategy used by CCD.
CCD opted to remain and develop as an urban disability organization based on
Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) fundamentals. PwDs are overcrowded in the
cities: according to the National Disability Survey of Afghanistan, PwDs make up to
3.9% of the urban population compared to the 2.5% of overall PwDs populations.
Like any other sector, there are a large number of disability organizations active in
Afghanistan. CCD was evaluated and recognized as a best disability organization by
the Afghan Parliament in 2011. Some of the CCDs distinguishing points and
comparative advantages are:
Based on CBR strategy and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), PwDs should have the leadership role in
all the planning, decision- making and program implementations for people
with disabilities. CCD is the only organization established and managed
mainly by PwDs;
CCD uses a special advocacy methodology; influences the policies and plans
of governmental and non-governmental organizations through awareness,
 advocacy and lobbying for mainstreaming disability in their services and
policies as a priority;
CCD is rooted in the community. It utilizes 57 community volunteers in all
22 municipal and 3 provincial districts of Kabul (Shakardara, Guldara,
Bagrami). It ensures the quality assurance, feasibility and cost effectiveness
of CCDs interventions;
CCDs strategic plan is developed and updated based on the Afghanistan
National Development Strategy (ANDS), Afghanistan National Disability
Action Plan (ANDAP) and National Priority Programs (NPP). As a result, CCD
is moving into total compliance with the government by contributing to
implementation and revision of these strategies;
Bridging the needs and services of PwDs, CCD utilizes a comprehensive
service user and service provider database. CCD works with a referral
network of 127 local organizations providing a wide variety of services
through partnership agreements;
CCDs work is frequently highlighted in the media. Over 400 audio and video
interviews of CCDs staff and beneficiaries are broadcasted in the last 5
years; and
CCD does not emphasize physical expansion of its activities; rather it works
through networks and advocacy at the national level.
The essence of existence of CCD is its constituencies and their needs and
problems. PwDs as the main beneficiaries of CCD makes the majority of
CCDs staff and is a priority to its community volunteers. The major
decisions here are influenced by the beneficiaries in two ways:
The entire staffs of CCD and community volunteers are members of the
general assembly that convenes every three years. Fifty percent of the
board members and sixty percent of the Management Team are PwDs All
the major decisions are approved here and all the members have an equal
voting right. As a result, major decisions are influenced by PwDs.
CCD uses different tools to involve its beneficiaries in decision-making at
the community level. A) Community need assessment and outreach
sessions: at least every two months, CCD conducts one community need
assessment session and one community outreach session at one of the
selected coverage districts while inviting influential and PwDs
representatives from other districts. In these sessions new trends, changes,
needs and demands of PwDs and potential solutions are identified and
 assessed. B) Mini-studies at the community level: as a new initiative, CCD
undertakes small research on the overall conditions of PwDs in Kabul and
identifies potential solutions. These studies are carried-out using a simple
random sampling method from the coverage districts of Kabul. The first
research was done in 2011 (see annex 4). C) Ad hoc consultation with the
beneficiaries: in all the direct activities of CCD, the comments, ideas, needs
and possible solutions of PwDs are compiled and are considered in future
activities. Based on the results of the above tools, the activities and
strategies of CCD are shaped and re-shaped.
In order to provide information and be held accountable to the
beneficiaries, CCD uses a number of below simple and effective strategies:
(Community Center for Disabled CCD, 2017)

A. Community Volunteers (CVs): The CVs are well-informed of all the decisions
and activities of CCD. They receive this information through CVs meetings and
other means (events, sessions, TV, Talash magazine etc) from CCD. The CVs
are the information bridge between CCD and the community; they transfer this
information to their communities.
B. Awareness sessions: regular awareness sessions on disability issues are
conducted at the community level for members of the community, including
influential people and PwDs themselves. One of the core activities of these
sessions are introduction to CCD and its interventions.
C. Website: The website of CCD is another tool for dissemination of information
for those who have access to computer and internet. All information about CCD
and its activities are available in local language (Dari and Pashto) in the website
www.ccd.org.af.
D. Magazine: CCD produces a quarterly magazine named TALASH, which serves as
an information resource by local and international media (e.g. Talash has been
used as a source by BBC, as well as accountability tool. The contents of this
magazine are disability related issues and CCDs interventions with sub-topics
such as: The main page, role model PwDs, changes in the disability field,
relevant improvements in the world and Afghanistan, case studies, testimonials
and interventions of CCD.
E. Annual reports: CCD produces project-based reports and disseminates them
through the website, Talash magazine and internally. From 2012 onwards, CCD
will publish its annual reports in a special issue of Talash at the end of each
 fiscal year. All the details of activities will be highlighted here, except the
budget, which will not be published due to security reasons. The budget detail
is reported and explained in the general assembly, board of directors and as
per the request of other members and beneficiaries.
F. Annual audits: To ensure financial accountability, CCD is bound to conduct an
annual audit of its financials. The annual audit is shared with the donors,
general assembly and board of directors (without request), beneficiaries and
other stakeholders (on request).

Complaints:
CCD believes that if a service user or a staff member wishes to make a complaint or
register a concern, they should find it easy to do so. In this regard, CCD has its own
complaint policy emphasizing that it is CCDs policy to welcome complaints and look
upon them as an opportunity to learn, adapt, improve and provide better services.
This policy is intended to ensure that complaints are dealt with properly and that all
complaints or comments by service users and their relatives and careers are taken
seriously.
Procedure: CCD receives complaints in two general ways: oral and written.
A community volunteer receives the oral complaints by phone. S/he notes the
complainers information based on his/her consent and documents and seals the
complainers letter on her/his behalf. The document is then transferred to the
complaint box of CCD located inside the CCD HQ against the main gate.
Anyone who wants to make a written complaint can write it down in detail and put
his/her information based on his/her willingness, though not mandatory. The paper
then should be put in an envelope and sealed with the complainers signature; it is
then deposited in the complaint box in the HQ of CCD either by the complainer or
anyone else.
Managing complaints: (CCD Operational Policy, 2016)
The complaint box has one custodian to keep the key and is authorized to open the
box. The CCD Executive Director selects this custodian from among the community
volunteers on a monthly basis. At the end of each month, the Community Volunteer
comes to CCD and opens the box in the presence of the Executive Director and
Program Manager of CCD. These three persons opens the complaint letters in a secret
meeting, reads and asses them. At the end of the meeting, they make specific
decisions to handle the specific complaints. If there are any complicated or big
complaints that these people cannot decide on, they are referred to the board of
directors. The complaints are answered in a max time one month to the complainer.
If the complainer is not happy with the decisions, s/he can complain to the higher
committees of CCD or other relevant governmental organizations; CCD will provide
proper guides.
Networking
Networking is a major tool of CCD. CCD networks both within and outside the sector
for different purposes. Based on its strategy, CCD expands its activities through
partnerships in other parts of Kabul and the country.

Within the sector:

CCD is an active member of Disability Stakeholder Coordination Group (DSCG). The
DSCG is led through the office of the Deputy Minister for Martyrs and Disabled of
MoLSAMD. The core objectives of this group is to coordinate activities, avoid
duplications, raise funds, exchange experience and lessons learned, advocate for the
disability issues and build synergy for greater disability movements.
CCD is a founding member of the Advocacy Committee of Persons with Disabilities
ACPD. This committee conducts mass advocacy for improvement of the disability
situation in Afghanistan. This committee is working as a coordinating body of disability
sector and works closely with Parliament and government. Drafting and approval of
National Disability Law and approval of UNCRPD by the government of Afghanistan are
sample achievements of this committee over the past few years.
CCD is the founding member of Afghanistan Community Based Rehabilitation Network
ACBRN that advocates for, coordinates and oversees CBR activities.
CCD has its own network of 7 associate organizations as well. These are the grassroots
organizations in the sector that are being supported by CCD since 2007. CCD
implements a number of its activities through these associate networks and backs-
them-up with the technical support and capacity building.
Outside the sector:
CCD works within a large network of 127 organizations outside the disability sector,
which also includes disability organizations. These organizations are service providers,
employing organizations, social, cultural and economic bodies. CCD has already signed
Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with these organizations and their details are
registered in the database of CCD. This network is mainly used for referral purpose.
CCD clients are assessed and introduced to different services provided through the
individual members of this organization. Also CCD has membership with Afghan
Women Network (AWN, Afghan Women Advocacy Coalition (AWAC), Afghan Civil
Society Forum (ACSFo) and Afghanistan Non-Governmental Coordination Body (ANCB).
Relationship with the government.
The government is the ultimate responsible institution for the development and
humanitarian activities of Afghanistan.
CCD adjusts its strategic plan and all its activities based on the national priorities and
plans of the government. The Afghanistan Constitution, ANDS, and NPP are the basis
of CCDs work and strategies. CCD believes in working in close partnership with the
government to maximize conformity of its activities to government plans. As a local
NGO, CCD is registered with the Ministry of Economy with sector relationship with
MoLSAMD. CCD coordinates all its activities with the relevant local government and
has a close relationship with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry of Education.
CCD also conducts joint activities with the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs
and Disabled (MoLSAMD) and the disability committee of Parliament. For example,
CCD participated in some special events and specific activities such as the
International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDDP), National Disability Workshops
2008, National CBR Conference 2008, National Physical Accessibility Conference
2010,National Psychosocial Rehabilitation workshop 2010 and 5th South Asian regional
Conference for CBR in Afghanistan 28th-30th March 2010. With Parliament, CCD and
other ACPD members spearheaded the advocacy process for the approval of the
National Disability Law from drafting to its publication to the official gazette. Also,
as a result of the disability communitys collective advocacy, the UNCRPD and Cluster
Mines conventions have been endorsed and published in the official gazette.

Institutional Capacity of CCD: (CCD strategic Plan)

Management
CCD is an organization with a dynamic structure and experienced, professional staff
members. Its own staff members developed the strategic plan of CCD with the
technical supports of HI. All the programs and projects are designed, implemented
and monitored by the local staff members. CCD has two departments 1) Admin and
Finance, 2) Program department.
Administration and finance department includes accounting, finance management,
Human Resources Management (HRM), logistics and admin. In accounting and finance
management, CCD uses QuickBooks; and excels sheets for further analysis. The
procurement team is working based the supply procedure, processes the
documentation and clears the accounts with the finance department on a regular
basis. For financial management, CCD has its own accounting and financial
management manual, kept by the finance manager and Executive Director. Proper
taxation, reporting, control, budget forecast and follow-up are in place to ensure
maximum accountability.
HR and administration are small units; both have their own working system and policy.
An HR policy is in place in accordance with the labor law of Afghanistan to regulate
and execute all HR affairs. The administration unit uses the code of conduct/internal
role of CCD as the guiding policy for all its activities.
The operations department of CCD works separate from the administrative and
finance department under the supervision of the Executive Director. It is sub-divided
into two further divisions; Advocacy unit and Social Inclusion unit. Each of the two
units is divided into smaller operational parts. There are fixed standards of operation
and reporting intervals for each sub-unit of the operations department, e.g. Basic
education unit and sports & leisure units have their own operation standard and
reporting system. Reports are produced monthly, and according to donor and
management team requirements. The entire activities of the operation department
is monitored and evaluated in proper intervals and brought to the notice of the
management team. The management team acts as the highest executive body in both
departments of CCD.
Capacity development
CCD has a high commitment to individual and organizational capacity building. Focus
is given to individual career development as a mean of contributing to organizational
development. CCD offers full support to capacity development of its staff and
improves its institutional capacity as a strategic issue. CCD has a separate recruitment
process and staff development policy. This policy regulates the recruitment process
based on competencies, ensures the monitoring and supervision of staff, relationship
building at the internal and external level, performance management and provides
measures for individual capacity development of the staff members.
CCD is experienced in building the capacity of CSOs and Disabled People Organizations
(DPOs). Between 2008 and 2011, CCD implemented comprehensive capacity
development plans for 15 DPOs. In addition, since 2010, CCD provided technical
support and capacity development for its 7 associate organizations and a number of
CDCs. The associates are generally grassroots and medium local organizations working
in the disability sector. Based on project responsibility, CCD assessed the capacity of
these associates in detail and identified capacity gaps. Based on the assessment,
comprehensive capacity building plans were developed for each of the associates and
implemented for over a period of 18 months. The capacity building plans consisted of
training and coaching in finance, admin, HR, program management, project
management, communications, development and implementation of relevant
policies.
Advocacy
Advocacy is one of the two sub-divisions of CCDs program department. In CCDs
perception, advocacy is influencing the policies, strategies and resource allocation
within social, economic and political institutions as well as giving social protection
to the benefit of PwDs. CCDs advocacy is adjust in four different fields, at different
levels.
At the government level: CCD works to influence the policies and strategies of the
government to include and mainstream disability as a priority into their programs and
policies.
At the private sector level: as a focal point, CCD advocates to include and mainstream
disability into their services and programs.
At the grassroots/community level: CCD offers awareness sessions, gatherings, and
events on disability issues to increase the information level of society to their change
perceptions towards disability. This mobilizes local resources and people to facilitate
socio-economic re-integration of PwDs as well as improve the level of understanding
of disability by society in order to better include PwDs in mainstream services.
At the PwD level: CCD improves the advocacy knowledge and capacity of PwDs, as
well as provides them strategies to improve their life skills.
DPO levels: In addition to the above-mentioned capacity building of DPOs, CCD also
CCD builds the advocacy capacity of DPOs through trainings and other activities.
Regarding advocacy, CCDs evaluation is results based. In evaluating the advocacy
sessions, CCD tracks the progress percentage or the end result considering time and
quality (e.g. mass advocacy on improvement of disability situation in Afghanistan:
National Disability Law approved and implementation started). (CCD Web Site, 2017)

Afghan Womens Educational Center (AWEC):

Contact Phone: +93 (0) 700263794
Email: awec.kabul@awec.info
Interviewee: Abdullah Baseerzay Internal Auditor Abdullah.baseerzay@awec.info
AWEC is a local women led organized strived for strengthening of Afghan Civil Society
Organizations with the aim of enabling Afghan Citizens to more effectively
participate in the political process, solve community problems, and demand good
governance from their leaders.
AWEC established and supported an network of 205 Civil Society organization since
beginning 2005 ,in 17 province of Afghanistan, assessed their needs, developed
capacity building plan , and improved their capacity through training and non-training
approaches like mentoring, coaching , technical assistance, and awarding small grants
to build & improve their capacity.
AWEC improved the capacity of its target CSOs in doing advocacy in local level
(provincial and district level) through trainings, partnership in Advocacy projects
implementation.
AWEC is one of the pioneers of women rights advocator from the last 21 years. It has
not only known as of the oldest women led organization but also women initiative
which was not established to response the demand of donor community but was
initiated based on the serious needs of women and children in Islamabad Pakistan.
The organization was involved in establishing Afghan Womens Network (AWN) which
is currently one of the largest women network which advocates for womens rights
and their equal participation.
Later on AWEC became is one of the first women organization which became as
Afghanistan national programs implementer since 2004 and then as Intermediary
service Organization, to act as a resource for other smaller civil society organizations.
Considering the many years intensive involvement with civil society strengthening, &
advocacy, AWEC can be distinguished from other similar organizations.

AWEC involvement: Afghan Womens Educational Center (AWEC) has played different
roles during its 21 years of its life to support the Afghan women. The organization
started with providing services such as education, economic opportunities and
subsequently it existence expanded to the other areas. AWEC leadership believes that
people and communities should be mobilized in addition to meeting their needs, so
that they are able to take government accountable for what they do. AWEC has
adopted different tools and approaches to achieve greater impact of its work, some
of them are:

a. Advocacy

AWEC advocacy for the right of the Afghan Women in international and
international level. AWEC is doing advocacy for the women right in both way
of being engaged direct and in partnership advocacy projects with different
national and international actors. Each of them focus on specific advocacy
issue; Afghan Women Network (AWN), Medica Afghanistan, Afghan
Parliamentarian Assistance Project (APAP) focus on policies and Laws
concerning women rights, with Afghan Civil Society Organizations Network for
Peace (ACSONP) focus on peace building, with Child Protection Network (CPAN)
focus on right of children, with Afghan Womens Advocacy Coalitions (AWAC) a
network which is consisting of other existent networks for womens rights
advocacy and Education Consortium (Seven local educational organizations)
work on different women right such as increase women access to the education
and increase literacy rate among Afghan Women.

At the international level, AWEC represents Afghan civil society at The

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) forum as one of the 10 members of CIC (CEDAW Initiative Committee).
Presently AWEC is active member of 1325 technical committee for producing
National Action Plan (NAP).

AWEC facilitated to reflect the voice of women in the recent national and
international events such as London Conference, Kabul Conferences, Peace
Jirga, Bonn Conference, Traditional Jirga, Chicago Conference and Tokyo
Conference. AWEC conducted consultations in grass root level with different
layer of community women in order to reflect their voice to the world.
 AWEC has received the membership of (SWAN) South Asia Women Network
representing education sector since 2008.

b. Capacity development support to CSOs

AWEC has been implementing partner organization for I-PACS (Initiative to

promote Afghan Civil Society) which aimed for institutional strengthening of
civil society organizations since 2005. AWEC was the first selected women
organization through an intensive national assessment and was awarded the
position of Intermediary Service Organization (ISO) which established a
network of 205 smaller civil society entities.

Afterwards, these small CSOs were assessed and were technically provided
capacity building trainings and coaching which led them towards their
organization development.

In 2010, AWEC was selected as technical sustainability grant management

organization by Ambassadors Small Grant Program (ASGP). AWEC hired around
35 Capacity Development Technical Assistant (CDTAs) and trained them as
organizational development consultant to carry out the technical capacity
assessment of women focused organizations in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

In the second phase of this ASGP program AWEC established a grant unit which
was one of AWEC strategic objectives, the purpose of this grant was to utilize
resource and strengthen AWEC in all aspects of institutional capacity
development and umbrella grants management so that they will be able to
serve as the sustainability organization to continue as an umbrella grant
management organization, directly receiving donor fund, channeling these to
local women-focused CSOs.

c. Act as Resource Centre for CSOs:

When AWEC was selected as one of the two Intermediary Service Organizations,
one of the objectives that the program was focusing was leading the
organization towards becoming as resource center for other smaller
 organizations. AWEC has been acting as resource center for 205 organizations
since 2005 through providing systematic need based capacity building trainings
to CSOs. AWEC opened a resource center in Kabul in April 2007 with a capacity
of delivering trainings to Afghan local CSOs provide them technical assistant by
technical experts in the resource center and provided them access to
information by a library of different books, and internet opportunity for those
who need it for communication and research. The same resource centers were
opened for the assistance of CSO members by the AWEC partners organizations
BEST in Ghazni, TLO in Paktia, ECW in Kunduz, and AWRC in Nangerhar
provinces and were supervised by AWEC.

d. Facilitate linkages between government and communities:

AWEC presence in 12 provinces of Afghanistan has made it possible to bridge

between people and government. Currently AWEC is able to maintain its
presence in 12 provinces of Afghanistan through it sub offices. AWEC hired its
employee from the local communities and keep the local concerned
governmental entities engaged in all phases of its projects from design through
implementation and evaluation. AWEC director said They are not only part of
our stakeholders but also part of our direct beneficiaries.

AWEC facilitates community dialogs with different class of community

members in grass root level discussed the priority of needs in their community,
communicate it to the provincial government, and provincial council, and
outlines the policy issues and then share it with the concerned Ministries of the
Afghan Government.

AWEC facilitated the process to reflect the need of communities to the local
governmental entities in subnational level. AWEC with its counterparts CSOs
launched a national policy reform conference in Sep 2011 with broad
participation of Government high ranking officials (Ministers and deputy
Minsters) donors, representatives of international organizations working in
Afghanistan, parliament members, to talk on the policy issue identified in
community dialogs with grass root level from the community people discussion.
AWEC was leading the education group in this conference and then draft a
policy paper and submitted through Counterpart International to the
Government of Afghanistan, suggesting reforms in the policy with community
recommendations. (AWEC Annual Report 2015)
AWEC added value and comparative advantages:

During the interview the researcher has with a member of the AWEC she said
Considering the facts of large number of national NGOs in Afghanistan, we
believe that our comparative advantages that distinguished us from others are as
below:

AWEC Transparency and accountability towards donors and

constituencies.
Provision of equal opportunities irrespective of sex, ethnic, religious,
linguistic and tribal differences are requisite to building just society
AWEC access as only women headed NGO to one third of the all
provinces of Afghanistan
National programs implementer (education support project, civic
education, civil society strengthening)
An organization with highest number of females in the decision-making
team of the organization and highest number of employees within
women-led organizations
Outreach of services to the most insecure provinces and districts
The most experienced women led organization among Afghan local
organizations.

Beneficiary Engagement.

AWEC involves its constituencies in organization decision-making at different level:

The program staff said that the strategic plan is the master plan of the organization.
AWEC beneficiaries had been given a chance to express their suggestions and share
their expectations from AWEC projects. The second level is when a project is designed
our beneficiaries expectations and needs are taken seriously into consideration. The
organization seeks beneficiaries consultations through different means. Our
provincial office team are always in contact with the community which can provide
the opportunity for our constituencies to share their concerns, problems with our
provincial team. The issues are brought out to coordination meetings and discussed.
The urgent issue are communicated with main office through mail.

AWEC Complaints management:

AWEC does not have a separate complaints policy however; the interviewee said it
has integrated as one of the very important part of our communication policy. In our
communication policy under complaints it is stated that there are two types
complaints coming to the organization internal and external.

The internal complain are staff complain and the external complains are divided
considering stakeholders which classified as:

A. Beneficiaries

B. Donors

C. Government

AWEC receive the internal complains form the staff member through different below
channels and handle it accordingly.

A. Formal and informal meetings

B. Visits/ and observation / Monitoring visits

C. Emails to supervisory and management

D. Complaint boxes

There are different type of meetings within the organization for the purpose of the
internal communication and coordination and they are:

1. Inter-departmental,

2. Department to department,

3. General Staff Meeting,

4. Quarterly Senior Staff meeting

5. Executive Staff meeting

6. Advisory Board Meeting

AWEC holds inter-departmental meetings on weekly bases, where not only the plans
are discussed, but also complaints are reported to the project managers or team
leaders. The organization also arranges department to department meetings (those
departments with connected activities) so share their problems and complaints. The
staff meetings are mostly arranged for all staff on monthly bases and complaints are
collected and discussed.
The executive team meetings are normally held bi-weekly, where the manager of
each department shares their updates. Complaints are also part of the agendas in
each executive meeting where the team set follow up activities on complains.

Monitoring visits, is another tool for collecting complaints from our staff and as well
as our stockholders (described above). The purpose of monitoring visit is not only
monitoring the progress of project but also documenting and reporting complains to
the decision making team.

Staff who are not in the position to talked and share their complaints face to face can
use sending their complaints to the supervisor through emails.

Complaints boxes are also used as a tool to receive staff complaints.

Complaints are usually handled by a team in AWEC depending on the nature of

complaints, considering the hierarchy of the organization the complaints are handled.
If the managing of complaints are within the authority of the supervisor or related to
the project it is dealt by the supervisor. Some of the complaints are connected with
other personal or departments. The complaints on individual staff are discussed with
the supervisor of that staff and then she/he is responsible to discuss the issue with
her/him. The complaints which are related to different departments such as HR the
manager is also involved when the complaint is handled. As it is said there are 3-4
people involved when a complaint is handled.

Complaints coming from stakeholders such as beneficiaries, government or donor, are

received always in written and then the complaints are discussed in the executive
meetings and senior management takes decision on how to handle it.

Anti-Corruption Measure in AWEC:

A. Financial policy:

AWEC has a comprehensive financial policy. It helps the AWEC finance team handing
and management of different financial management issues and reporting, and make
sure the best utilization of the funds during project implementations.

The finance team is using QuickBooks Software as a financial management software

for the data recording reporting purposes.

B. Internal control system:

The AWEC internal auditor said Internal controls are one of the major aspects of
financial management which can greatly reduce the chance misusing of office money
financial risks. Internal control in AWEC include areas like authorizing expenditure,
preparing accounts and comparing them against a budget, making sure that people
with the appropriate skills and experience are recruited for financial work, and that
their responsibilities are clearly defined, authorization of all financial documents,
segregation of duties, cash security, bank and cash reconciliation.

There are different authorization level that is very clearly stated in the AWEC
operational policy. It clears the financial approval authority for each level of
management. Below table summarize the authority of each position.

Authorized Approved Financial Authorized Cash or

US $ Amount
Personnel Commitment Bank Disbursement

Admin Manager
Logistic Manager $1 - $100 Yes No
Project Manager

Deputy Director
Program
$1 - $1000 Yes Yes
Coordinator
Finance Manager

$1000 and
Director Yes Yes
above

(AWEC Operational Manual)

C. Audit:

AWEC has two types of audit, internal Audit and external audit.

1. Internal Audit:

In order to make sure the of the effecting fund utilization and effecting financial
management AWEC use internal audit a tool to ensure proper financial management.
The internal financial audit always doing the planned audit, spot audit, and need
based audit of the AWEC projects.

2. External Audit:
AWEC conduct external audit annually at the end of the each fiscal year by a trusted
audit company. This report of the audit goes to AWEC board and its all other
stakeholders such as donors when they require. The finance manager said its out
10th year that we are doing annual audit by the external audit company. He further
added that they are selecting the audit company based on the requirement they has
for the AWEC and the AWEC advisory board is usually engaged in the process of
selecting that audit firm.

Organizational learning in AWEC:

The AWEC program manager said during his interview We have found that learning
exercises are good to be part of programs and project designs, and it will give us a
clear understanding of the project that to which extent it has met the needs of the
community.

In addition, AWEC each year conduct lessons learn workshop by inviting its provincial
staff in which they discuss their success and failures cases, all these are documented
with recommendations. The outcome of the lesson learned workshop helps AWEC
management special the project design team to focus more on the key factors that
make the project successful.

AWEC Networking:

A. Local Networking: According to the directors interview AWEC is part of

different local networks of the civil society organizations in Afghanistan.
Currently AWEC has formal membership of different local forums such
membership with ACBAR, ANCB, AWN, Child Protection Network (CPAN), and
Afghan Womens Advocacy Coalitions (AWAC) a network. AWEC is leading the
network of 205 CSOs established under I-PACS project.

B. International Net Working: In the international level AWEC is part of the couple
of the international forums. According to the AWEC directors interview AWEC
is a member of Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) forum and CIC (CEDAW Initiative Committee).
AWEC Relations with the government.

According to the interviews with key staff AWEC has maintained good relation with
government so far. AWEC does coordination on each new program at central and
provincial level and they are informed through an official letter with the submission
of the project proposal and budget. one of AWECs other approach in order to
legitimate its work is singing MoUs with line governmental bodies, such as Ministry
of education, Ministry of social and labour affairs, Ministry of Interior.

According the AWEC project manager response the AWEC team is participating at all
government-civil society meetings held in the provincial level each month in the
provinces where they have office. The Provincial Development Council (PDC) is one
of the biggest meetings with participation of all government district directors,
governor and donors in which AWEC also regularly participates.

AWEC Advocacy Efforts:

AWEC is committed to for the realization of Afghan Women access to the rights and
it is part of its mission.

According to the AWEC program manager interview AWEC believes that any activity
which can change the life and condition of women and result their access to their
rights is advocacy. Even a small step towards a big change. The program manager
added that Afghan women issues are one of the most sensitive issues in Afghanistan,
changes need to be brought on the mind set of community at different levels.

AWEC uses awareness raising, educating the affecting people on their rights,
organizing community dialogues, capacity building, and information brochures as
tools for its advocacy efforts. As part of their advocacy efforts AWEC provides legal
support to women who need it especially those who are in the Afghanistan detention
centers.

AWEC does its advocacy project in three levels 1) with grass root level, 2) in nation
level with other actors and advocacy forums, and 3) with the international actors on
the important national strategic issues. According to the advocacy team members
interview, there are plan in place for the all level and is developed in participatory
way with the consultation of the concerned stakeholders.

(AWEC Director, 2017)

Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR)

Email address of the contact person: director@acbar.org

Haj Ibrahim Wael Director of ACBAR; +93 (0)706 602 570

ACBAR is the main independent coordinating body of Afghan and international NGOs
(47 national and 69 international) in Afghanistan, with a long standing, well
established history and role that exists to serve and facilitate the work of its NGO
members in order to address efficiently and effectively the humanitarian and
development needs of Afghans and advocate on behalf of communities with policy
and decision makers at local and international levels.
ACBARs diverse membership and cross sector umbrella network nature gives it a
unique position in being able to strengthen the work of NGOs and the civil society
actors in order to expand services into provinces and districts through coordination,
capacity building; learning and training, thus enhancing their ability to efficiently and
effectively address basic needs and protect the rights of Afghans; in the current fluid
socio-economic and political climate.
ACBARs presence in Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Herat, through its regional offices,
further allows for enhanced coordination activities to be carried out at the provincial
level, in areas where there is a strong concentration of NGOs. ACBAR also has presence
in the East of the country through its partner ANCB and in the South Western
Afghanistan and Balochistan Association SWABAC. This presence at the sub-national
level is an opportunity to expand its activities in the regions, thereby making it easier
for local staff of NGOs and for smaller NGOs based in the regions to benefit more
broadly from their membership in ACBAR. ACBAR also works closely with other
geographical networks such as ANCB and SAWABAC to ensure widespread coverage
across the country. (Panaroma of Civil Society -ACBAR, 2015)
ACBAR is the only Coordinating Body that can seriously advocate on behalf of the
NGOs, civil society groups and communities with the various stakeholders at national
level (UN, Donors, Armed Forces, Government and Media) and guarantee a certain
continuity and consistency in the messaging.

ACBAR is one of entities in Afghanistan that offers capacity building and learning
exchange activities in a systemic manner in the shape of training modules in the areas
of Code of Conduct, project cycle management, NGO taxation and Law. ACBAR is in
the process of developing an Afghanistan specific gender framework and human rights
in conflict modules as well. (ACBAR, 2017)
The advocacy role played by ACBAR is critical in the sense that ACBAR represents the
NGO and community voice for most governmental officials, donors and media. The
magnitude of the various changes affecting the traditional work environment of
NGO/CSOs as well as their identity requires a common and strong strategy. For
example over the last years, ACBAR has been very active in trying to clarify the
provisions of the NGO, Labor and Income tax laws for the benefit of the entire
community. Another example is the policy paper on communitys perception of basic
services ten years after Bonn the process which ACBAR compiled as a result of wide
community consultation process and was shared with government and donors prior to
the Bonn Conference in December of 2012.
ACBARs mission is: (1) To provide high quality information to ACBAR members and
external stakeholders. 2) To advocate for and represent the interests of the NGO and
CSO sector in Afghanistan on behalf of its members. 3) To coordinate NGOs policy,
advocacy and activities in Kabul and the provinces. 4) To promote high ethical and
professional standards among the NGO community /civil society actors through
training, learning and capacity building and by improving their involvement at policy
level. 5) To support CSO engagement with governance institutions and policy makers
at local and international levels. 6) To serve as link between communities and
policy and decision makers in Kabul and internationally
ACBAR aims to do this by:
Strengthening the work of NGOs and the civil society actors in order to expand services
into provinces and districts through coordination, capacity building; learning and
training to enhance their ability to efficiently and effectively address basic needs and
protect the rights of Afghans.

More specifically by:

Building capacity of Afghan civil society organizations

Coordination of geographical spread of services of civil society groups to
ensure adequate geographical coverage.

(ACBAR, 2017)
The role of ACBAR is also to promote high standards of operations among its members
and to a larger extend to raise awareness among the larger community of NGOs/CSOs
about those standards. ACBAR is providing training modules on project management,
on the NGO and tax law as well as on the Code of Conduct. ACBAR also invites
government officials to participate to the NGO/tax law and Code of Conduct trainings.
Going further than improving operational standards, those trainings are a mean to
strengthen the links between NGOs/CSOs and the respective line ministries. They also
constitute an improvement of the perception of NGOs/CSOs: thanks to those trainings,
NGOs/CSOs are now perceived as more reliable and skilled actors, participating to the
reconstruction of Afghanistan. However, there is still a need to pursue those efforts
towards improved standards for NGOs/CSOs in Afghanistan. (ACBAR, 2017)
ACBAR continues to facilitate the flow of information among its members on various
policy issues, and to coordinate among members on such topics if there is a demand.
ACBAR is committed to strengthen the role of women in NGOs/CSOs through the
provision of trainings on the Code of Conduct, the Sphere standards and the NGO law:
ACBAR strongly encourage NGOs/CSOs to include their female staff in those trainings.
Through its coordination and facilitation activities, ACBAR contributes to the
improvement of womens representation in decision making processes.
ACBARs track record, reputation and credibility among the aid community have
allowed it to voice the concerns of NGOs/CSOs with some success, and to coordinate
effective responses to issues of critical importance to NGO/CSO work in the country.
As such, ACBAR plays a crucial role in representing the interests of NGOs/CSOs to the
government and donor community. In addition, ACBAR plays a crucial role in assisting
communication between government and NGOs/CSOs and helping to resolve problems
both at the provincial and national levels. (ACBAR, 2017)
ACBAR plays a key role in providing information to members and to external
stakeholders such as donors, multilateral organizations and the media. Its ability to
transmit information to its members is highly appreciated and very necessary.
ACBAR is also in a unique position to provide information on the work and impact of
NGOs/CSOs in Afghanistan. ACBAR already collects information on its member
organizations and their activities, and could enhance this role to provide more analysis
and diffuse it more widely as members are requesting.
The Code of Conduct is highly regarded by members, donors and the government and
seen as a necessary step toward increased professionalism and accountability of
NGOs/CSOs in Afghanistan. ACBARs leadership in establishing the code, training
members and hosting the secretariat provide the basis for playing a key role in
establishing standards for NGOs/CSOs and supporting its members to meet them.
Coordination has been a core activity for ACBAR since its inception, and continues to
be important for its members. Whereas in the past, coordination of activities in a
particular region was most important, other coordination mechanisms have been
established in some regions. The need for coordination of activities varies from place
to place, and among sectors. In general, there is a strong demand for punctual
coordination around particular issues. In particular, ACBAR has helped to coordinate
NGO/CSOs responses to issues and challenges, which has been much appreciated in
recent years, by all relevant parties. (ACBAR, 2017)

List of ACBAR activities currently undertaken: (ACBAR Strategic Plan 2017-2019)

1. Serves as a key link between government departments and CSO/NGOs by receiving
letters, call for proposals, reporting requests, and so forth and channeling
feedback to those entities from NGOs and CSOs. ACBAR translates all relevant
material from English to local languages and from local language to English as
required.
2. ACBAR advertises job vacancies from donors, UN Agencies, the Afghan
Government, Private sector and NGOs.
3. ACBAR Regional Offices collect information from the Afghan Government
Authorities, people and other stakeholders and passes it onto ACBAR Head Office.
4. ACBAR represents its members interest at a number of forums such as
Humanitarian Country Team, Afghanistan Humanitarian Forum, and HAP steering
committee, inter cluster and so forth.
5. ACBAR maintains an up to date base and contact directory of members, different
stake holders, the GIRoA, donors, Embassies, NGOs, private sector, UN and media.
6. ACBAR participates to and organizes monthly NGOs Coordination meetings that
take place in Kabul as well as in the Regional Offices (Herat, Jalalabad, and
Mazar);
7. At the regional level, ACBAR participates in monthly thematic group meetings,
informs NGOs of such meetings, takes minutes; disseminate agenda and minutes
of the meetings.
8. ACBAR, as directed by its membership, press releases, organize round table
discussions, sponsor publications, etc. exhibitions and regular press statement or
articles).
9. ACBAR conducts community feedback sessions on key issues on concern to
communities such as quality of services and some proposed policies and strategies.
ACBAR Advocacy (ACBAR, 2017)

Tokyo Conference: July 2012

ACBAR Members have produced a series of briefing notes highlighting civil society
actors concerns in the lead-up to the July 2012 Tokyo Conference and in the
context of transition.
With the intention to communicate four position papers on Governance, Service
Delivery, Womens Rights and Humanitarian issues to varied stakeholders; more
specifically Donors-key decision makers, policy makers, in Europe and Afghanistan;
specifically in the sectors eluded to in the papers.
Chicago Conference: May 2012
A separate paper was prepared for the Chicago conference held in May 2012 with key
recommendations on:
Ensuring oversight and accountability of Afghan National Security Forces
(ANSF)
Afghan Local Police and other community defense forces
Civilian Casualty Mitigation and Response
Women, Peace and Security
Impact of transition on civilians

ACBAR worked together with the Civil Society Joint Working Group for the Tokyo
Conference.
Bonn Conference: December 2011
The key findings from consultations based on 48 focus groups held between July 2011
and September 2011 were published in a report in November 2011 Health and
Education in Afghanistan: 10 Years After Quantity Not Quality; ACBAR Policy Report
series; November 2011
430 interviewees, included groups of men, women, youth, persons with disabilities,
local decision-makers and Kuchis. Research was conducted in Kabul, Parwan,
Bamiyan, Taloqan, Nangahar, Ghor, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar Provinces and
participants also came from Kunar, Laghman, Sarpul, Samangan and Wardak.
The key activities that currently ACBAR is engaged are: (ACBAR Strategic Plan 2017-
2019)

Improving access to information

In the constantly changing context of Afghanistan, many of ACBARs stakeholders have
wide-ranging information needs: ranging from project proposals to new legislative
provisions. ACBARs current information tools for members are very much appreciated
and in demand. This has been confirmed by an appraisal of ACBAR performances and
most use services conducted in July 2009. In addition, ACBAR members receive regular
information on the contents or results of ACBAR advocacy related activities
undertaken on behalf of NGOs.

In addition to its own members information needs, non-members but registered

NGOs, the donor community, the media and other international actors expect ACBAR
to provide them with data on NGOs. In general, finding a balance between the needs
of external and internal stakeholders is a challenge for ACBAR. New information
releasing policy is being developed at the moment to rationalize the information
sharing with visitors, users, and members and non- members.

The need to strengthen coordination at provincial and national level

Co-ordination remains necessary however challenging in the context of Afghanistan:
(1) many NGOs/CSOs are relatively new or have high staff turnover and are not
familiar with funding mechanisms or advocacy matters; (2) there is a paucity of skilled
and experienced local human resources and hence there is dependence on external
factors; (3) the government of Afghanistan is slowly evolving and changing its
legislative framework for NGOs, with still some pieces of the policy needing to be
clarified both for the NGOs/CSOs staff and for the ministries clerks.

The need to address the negative perception of NGOs/CSOs

The large amount of aid money spent in Afghanistan over the past years (around US$
57 billion according to the Ministry of Finance), the limited positive impact on Afghan
citizens life, the numerous story of corruption reported by the media, all those
factors create a climate of general suspicion, frustration and accusation again
CSOs/NGOs.
Grounded or not, the general perception of NGOs/CSOs by the population, the
authorities and the media is negative. The perception of corruption that affects the
NGO / civil society as well as most actors in Afghanistan, is definitely an issue that
needs to be addressed. As a matter of fact, the level of compliance with international
standards, the level of transparency and accountability is uneven among NGOs/CSOs.
In addition, most NGO, rather than addressing the issue of misperception by
developing closer relationship with the Press and sharing more information about their
activities and their use of public funding, have avoided the contact, comforting the
Press in its position.

Through its planned communication strategy with the media, the promotion of its
Code of Conduct, and its plan to monitor the level of compliance of the signatories of
the Code of Conduct, ACBAR intends to improve the general perception of NGOs by
the population.

The efforts to improve the perception of NGOs/CSOs as impartial and neutral actors
shall also be strengthened through strong communication and advocacy campaigns,
to be rolled out on the long run.

The need to enhance and develop advocacy efforts and to improve the
involvement of NGOs/CSOs at policy level
Globally NGO, civil society actors in spite of constant efforts, have had little or
minimal influence on decision makers; this primarily in that Civil Society is diverse
with its diversity often seen as non-unified positions rather than ones of strength. Due
to diversity and leading to the lack of consistency of messages released in the media
or in meetings, the lack of data to support those messages, the lack of financial
independency, the lack of interaction with governmental institutions and major
stakeholders, the lack of coordination, the lack of resources, or the lack of
understanding of its own role, has weakened the role of NGOs/CSOs. They are not yet
perceived by decision makers as a relevant interlocutor to interact with. ACBAR will
develop an Advocacy training strategy for Provincial audiences; who with this skill set
coupled with trainings on legislation and law will be better equipped to advocate on
issues with all relevant stakeholders.

ACBAR is also involved in strengthening the involvement of NGOs/CSOs at policy level:

although ACBAR was able to ensure that the voice of civil society would be heard at
international forums such as the upcoming Tokyo conference, albeit there are still
some improvements to achieve, especially in the frame of the Kabul process. Indeed
the weight of NGOs/CSOs in the existing consultation forum such as the Joint
Coordination and Monitoring Management Board JCMB is still too weak and ACBAR
should reinforce its coordination efforts to ensure that the messages from NGOs/CSOs
are reaching their targets.

Specific Engagements:

Generating data and analysis on NGOs in Afghanistan

Donors and other stakeholders require information on NGOs working in the country,
whether to use in decision-making or to understand the background of development
and humanitarian assistance work in the country. Such information can also be used
to help to demonstrate the impact and legitimacy of NGO/CSO work in Afghanistan.
This requires that the ACBAR directory and member database continue to be
produced, with efforts to ensure their quality and reliability. In addition, analysis of
trends and facts will help to support the advocacy activities of ACBAR and its
members.

Providing essential information to members

This service is one of the most essential currently provided by ACBAR. Through its
bulletins, job adverts and translations of letters from government, ACBAR manages
an information network that is unique in Afghanistan. ACBAR will enhance these with
more information and feedback on ACBAR activities such as coordination, lobbying
and participation in various forums.
Using information technologies to enhance internal and external communications
ACBAR will make increasing use of its website and other information technologies to
effectively disseminate information to both members and external stakeholders and
to enhance internal communications with members. This will include establishing a
member section on ACBARs website to store information relevant to members, using
online survey facilities and other applications.
Information technologies will support all of ACBARs strategies by easing the flow of
information to stakeholders, by supporting member consultations, and by facilitating
the sharing of resources among member organizations to help new organizations
quickly acquire the tools they need to become well managed and well governed.
Facilitating Coordination mechanisms
ACBAR facilitates the organization of coordination forums in informing its members of
existing forums and in organizing regular and ad hoc coordination meetings according
to the requirement of its members. ACBAR tries to improve the coordination / flow
of information among NGO/CSO and link this coordination role with advocacy
activities.
Facilitating the coordination of NGO input
Consulting members on key policy and practice issues, and documenting proceedings,
outputs and results for future reference is one of ACBARs core activities. ACBAR uses
the results of its consultations as input to the many forums in which it is invited to
represent NGOs/CSOs. ACBAR will continue to do this in forums which relate to the
priority issues mentioned above, as defined by its members and Steering Committee.
Coordination of communication operations
ACBAR organizes communication operation aiming at promoting the role, the values,
the activities and overall the added value of the civil society active in Afghanistan.
Advocacy Working Group
ACBAR organizes regular meeting gathering major civil society / NGO coordinating
bodies as well as advocacy experts from member organizations. The purpose of the
meeting is primarily to identify and develop a common strategy on one specific issue.
The question of the perception of NGOs/CSOs has recently been identified as a critical
issue for example. The second purpose of the meeting is to follow up the situation
and, when need be, coordinate the messages of the NGO community regarding urgent
matters that arise regularly (high profile visit, major incidents, misleading
information in the media, etc.). The third purpose of the forum is also to develop the
advocacy capacity of national NGOs which tend to be extremely poor.
Advocacy and Representation Strategies
Members expect ACBAR to play a leading role in defending the interests of
NGOs/CSOs, especially with government but also with the international community.
ACBAR is called upon to actively promote the position of NGOs/CSOs and to respond,
as it is currently doing, to issues or problems that arise from time to time. Maintaining
relationships and open communication channels with key stakeholders and institutions
susceptible of influencing the work of NGOs/CSOs in Afghanistan will continue to be
an essential task of the ACBAR team.
Facilitating the coordination of NGO input
Consulting members on key policy and practice issues, and documenting proceedings,
outputs and results for future reference is one of ACBARs core activities. ACBAR uses
the results of its consultations as input to the many forums in which it is invited to
represent NGOs/CSOs. ACBAR continues to do this in forums which relate to the
priority issues mentioned above, as defined by its members and Steering Committee.
Problem solving and trouble-shooting (Legal Services and Relationship with the
Government)
As the main representative of NGOs/CSOs in the country, ACBAR will continue to play
a key role in helping its members to deal with legal, regulatory and other practical
issues that arise. In these matters, ACBAR plays the role of intermediary between the
Government and NGOs. In the regions, ACBAR offices help to facilitate communication
between its members and government authorities.
ACBAR is providing legal advice in an informal way. With the creation of a department
in charge of government interaction, ACBAR is able to provide a more regular and
accurate legal support to NGO members (on Income tax, NGOs social and labour laws
and in all relevant legal matters). In addition, the legal specialist with the support of
the Deputy Director will interact proactively with the various ministries and the
Parliament. For all relationship with the parliament and the GIRoA, the government
interaction unit will work in close coordination with the advocacy department.
Enhancing the image of NGOs/CSOs in Afghanistan
Because of the diversity among its membership, ACBAR may not be able to take up
on-going advocacy activities on particular development sectors or issues such as
gender or education. ACBAR will, however, engage in an advocacy campaign aimed at
improving the perception of NGOs/CSOs in the eyes of the general public.

ACBAR will develop a set of materials to improve the collective perception of the
NGOs/CSOs community and will develop tools and messages that each individual
organization may use in their own communication with communities, authorities, etc.
ACBAR will also provide training to interested members on the use of these materials.
To promote high ethical and professional standards among the NGOs/CSOs
community.
Developing, promoting and monitoring the implementation of the NGO Code of
Conduct
The Code of Conduct is the main tool to promote the perception of NGOs/CSOs as
impartial, reliable and transparent actors in the eyes of the general public. To
strengthen the value of the Code of Conduct, ACBAR has lead the work related to the
revision of the Code and strengthens the monitoring process of the Code
implementation.
Building the Capacities of Member Organizations
ACBAR will expand the range of training programs it currently offers to member
organizations, namely: Code of Conduct, Sphere standards, the NGO and tax laws.
Such trainings are already taking place in the regions but would need to be further
expanded.
ACBAR will also continue to link its members to other capacity building opportunities
through its network of partners.
Collecting the issues faced by NGOs/CSOs while interacting with the government
In order to better understand the daily constraints faced by NGOs/CSOs staffs in
dealing with department ministries, ACBAR will record the difficulties they face while
interacting with provincial and district authorities. This will be done during the
trainings performed on the Code of Conduct, the Sphere standards, Income Tax, Labor
and the NGO laws. This will enable ACBAR to adapt its training tools according to the
identified needs. Besides, the information related to those difficulties will also be
shared with the advocacy department and may provide grounds for further advocacy
activities pertaining to the improvement of relations between NGOs/CSOs and the
government.
Enhancing the image of NGOs in Afghanistan
ACBAR is committed to improve the perception of NGOs/CSOs through advocacy and
communication campaigns. ACBAR has already started to develop a closer relationship
with the press in the objective of improving the perception of NGOs/CSOs. ACBAR will
rely on the Code of Conduct and on the Sphere standards to promote the values of
independence, quality and transparency of its members.
To strengthen the role of the NGOs / CSOs.
Civil society and NGO main coordinating bodies do not work together enough in
Afghanistan. ACBAR has over the past 2 years tried to approach the various actors and
has managed to establish good and productive relationships with most of them. For
the last international conference on Afghanistan which took place in London at the
end of January 2010 ACBAR was asked to facilitate the consultation process within
the civil society and to produce a statement that would capture the recommendation
of the civil society for the government and the international community. For the first
time the civil society / NGO community reached a consensus on key messages, was
able to engage a gender balanced representation and demonstrated its ability to be
strategically organized. After this positive experience ACBAR intends to preserve the
dynamic that has been generated and use it to the strengthening of the voice of the
civil society. During the last Kabul conference, ACBAR has taken the initiative to
include civil society representatives in the various working groups in charge of
preparing the road map for the transition process. In view of the Tokyo conference,
ACBAR has already taken initiatives aimed at strengthening the input from the
CSOs/NGOs.

Afghanistan Private Hospital Association (APHA):

The Afghanistan Private Hospital Association (APHA) is a non-governmental, non-
political, and non-profit national association established and registered with the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in 2007. The members of APHA include both private
hospitals and clinics drawn from across the country. Currently APHA has total
membership of about 170 hospitals drawn mainly from Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e-
Sharif provinces. APHA is led by a national Board and has its head office in Kabul,
Afghanistan.
During the interview the director APHA said With technical and financial support
from Palladium Group the Health Policy Project (HPP) we developed our first
strategic plan in 2011. APHA experienced financial constraints that prevented them
from effectively implementing their plan during last 2 years. However, despite these
constraints, they said that they could manage to implement some of their priority
activities and made a number of significant achievements. Following is an outline of
some of these achievements:

Worked collaboratively with Ministry of Public Health MoPH, with funding

from the USAID-funded HPP to develop Minimum Required Standards (MRS)
tool for private hospitals and clinics. Further, APHA continued to work with
MoPH to implement trainings on implementation of the MSR tool. They could
trained over 130 private hospitals in Kabul about the MRS and successfully
implemented MRS in 41 of these private hospitals. Plans are underway to
implement these trainings in the provinces. Based on the MRS data that APHA
collect, it is clear that a number of hospitals have improved their operations
and safety measures as a result of implementing MRS. The relationship
between private and public hospitals has also improved as a result of MRS
implementation.
Another joint initiative between MoPH and APHA is implementation of the
Hospitals Management Information System (HMIS), as supported by Health
Policy Project. This system is designed for use by private hospitals to collect
health data that is posted in an online portal. APHA is the administrator of
 this system. The system is voluntary and the number of hospitals that have
subscribed to it is growing.
Working collaboratively with Ministry of Public Health and some development
partners, APHA could held the first private health sector conference in
Afghanistan in 2014 during, which they discussed the achievements and
challenges of the private sector in advance health in Afghanistan.
Capacity development of members was and is one of APHA priorities in the
last year plan. APHA conducted a training survey and implemented trainings
on infection prevention and waste management. The trainings were
sponsored by Health Policy Project and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Thirty-five of APHA Kabul-based members benefited from this training. APHA
conducted similar trainings for its members in Herat (twice), Kandahar,
Mazar, and Nangarhar. Lack of funding has prevented APHA from conducting
more such trainings frequently and in all the provinces.
APHA also implemented infections prevention trainings for 12 of its members
in Kabul.
APHA trained medical personnel in private maternity hospitals on vaccination.
Through APHA advocacy efforts, Ministry of Public Health created the Public
Private Dialogue Forum, which holds meetings every month bringing together
Ministry of Public Health and private sector representatives to discuss issues
and strategies for better collaboration. Such discussions have also resulted in
the streamlining of the inspection and monitoring of the private hospitals.
The process of licensing of private hospitals has also been reduced from 17 to
6 steps.
Through advocacy, APHA prevailed upon Ministry of Public Health to reverse
the decision to irregularly closing the operations of 9 of its members without
following due process. This was one of the landmark interventions that the
affected members are very much thankful for.
APHA is currently a very close partner of Ministry of Public Health, within
APHA serving in a number of committees and task forces formed by the
Ministry including but not limited to the MRS Taskforce, the Medical Council,
the Private Health Centers Regulation Revision Committee, Directorate of
Private Sector Coordination and the M&E Department. APHA also have close
working relationships with other key ministries, including the Ministry of
Finance, Ministry of Economy (MOE), and the Parliaments Health Committee.
 Challenges:
A number of factors have prevented them from effectively implementing
their priorities and their key strategic activities during last 5 years. These
challenges includes:
APHA has only one financial source that is the membership fee, and it cant
cover the cost of the all activities planned in the APHA strategic plan. In 2015
receive only one project grant from Palladium Group and implemented some
priority activities.
Different type of governmental taxes which the members of this association
have to pay.
MoPH and other government agencies does not notify private hospital when a
new policy decision or policy that affects private hospitals is made.
They said that the Ministry of Justice is not supportive on passing the
reformed private sector hospital procedures which recently revised jointly
by a committee consisting of Governmental members and APHA members.
Becoming a member of APHA is voluntary. The association wish is that the
government made it one of the requirement for all private hospitals and
clinics to register as members of APHA. Each of the private hospital prior to
get the license should get the APHA membership.
Most of the association members operate from rented business premises that
are not architecturally suitable for a hospital operation. It is for this reason
that most hospitals that implemented the MRS assessment scored lower in
operations as compared to technical areas.
Most of APHA members dont have proper security they are threatened by the
armed individuals.
Unlike other private sector practitioners, hospitals and clinics are charged
very high electricity utility rates. This has greatly affected the performance
of private hospitals and clinics.
Some government agencies and departments do not have very high regard of
the private hospitals compared to other private sector players. The director
of APHA gave examples of other private sector players like hotel and firms
who are provided facilities such as land, low tax
There is an acute lack of medical engineering services. For many hospitals,
when some of the medical equipment breakdown, they ship them out of the
county for repairs, which is very costly.
The APHA is of CSOs that closely working the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) of
Afghanistan. During the interview the director said we need close cooperation and
coordination with Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) for our sustainability and
effective working with our members. Currently APHA is attending decision making
events of MoPH and representing its members and their needs.

Afghanistan Medicine Service Union (AMSU):

Afghanistan Medicines Services Organization was founded in 2011 and registered with
the Ministry of Economy in 2012 as Afghan National Medicines Services Organization
(ANMSO). ANMSO later changed its name to AMSU. AMSU is an umbrella organization
that brings together a number of other pharmaceutical and equipment associations
and unions, including the Medicines Importers Association, Medicines Manufactures
Association, Wholesaler Association, Retailers Association, and Medical Equipment
Association. The union currently has over 700 members drawn from various regions in
Afghanistan. The union has its head office in Kabul and six regional offices in
Kandahar, Nangarhar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Paktia, and Kunduz. The Kabul office
houses most of its staff whereas the regional offices are each managed by a Finance
Officer. The mission of AMSU is to promote health by promoting national production
and importing of quality medicines and medical equipment. AMSU aims to achieve
this goal through advocacy, capacity building and implementation of standards.

AMSU is an umbrella organization which include many other smaller associations under
one roof, and its members are spread all over Afghanistan. The strength of this
organization is its presence through Afghanistan through its central office in Kabul
and regional offices in Afghanistan Zones. AMSU is also recognized by the MoPH and
usually doing liaison between MoPH and its members.
AMSU is governed by an elected board at the tope and the board has several functional
committees who are assigned for specific functions. AMSU is part of different
Governmental task force group and using this opportunity doing advocacy in behalf of
its members on strategic issues. Below are some of the factors and challenges those
are present internally and prevent AMSU to function better as an effective
association:
An incomplete management structure in making it difficult to effectively operate
and service its members
 Over-reliance on membership fees as a source of income, which is not enough to
support all our operations and programs
Limited fundraising capacity, though there are many funding raising opportunity
for AMSU and can be potential funding sources for AMUS but there is not
technical staff within AMSU structure to raise fund.
Limited efforts in the recruitment and development of membership
Limited capacity to serve all the needs of the existent members
Ineffective implementation of management systems, policies and procedures
Limited coordination among members and between the head office in Kabul and
regional offices in the provinces.
Inadequate flow of information between the head office in Kabul and regional
offices out of Kabul province.

The Key beneficiaries of AMSU that form the central focus of its current strategy
are:

The general public: The private sector accounts for most of the
pharmaceuticals available to the people of Afghanistan rather than the
Government provide it. The public expects equitable access to high quality
and affordable pharmaceutical products from both the government and
private sources.

Producers, importers and dealers in pharmaceutical products and medical

equipment: The producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers are private
businesses that deal in pharmaceutical products. Some of these are members
of AMSU. Their expectation is that there is conducive socio-economic and
regulatory environment that supports them to operate profitable and
sustainable businesses.

The government: The interest of the government is that the private

pharmaceuticals stakeholders collaborate with the government to deliver
high quality and affordable pharmaceutical products. The government also
expects the pharmaceuticals enterprises to meet their tax obligations and
follow the relevant laws just like any other business operating in Afghanistan.
 Hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers: Private hospitals, clinics and
diagnostic centers rely on the producers, importers and wholesalers for the
supply of pharmaceuticals. These healthcare facilities are interested in
accessing high quality and affordable pharmaceutical products.

AMSU intends to focus on the below priority for the coming period of 2017-2021.
Enabling environment: To support the private sector business in the field of
pharmacy to operate and grow in Afghanistan.
Capacity development: To develop the capacity if the members came
together under AMSU in import of medicine, stock management, marketing,
and customer service.
Organizational development: To develop and strengthen the internal capacity
of AMSU to function better and better support its members through providing
the intended supports, and advocacy.

According to interview with deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMSU, the only
source of income is the membership fee that is 500AFN/month. This can be 40000AFN
for the Kabul based member that meets only the Kabul office operation cost. This
amount is not sufficient for the development activities planned by the AMSU. Only
once AMSU received a project grant from the HPP project for it organizational
development in 2012. AMSU office is managed by a board of 4 paid staff including
CEO, deputy CEO, Admin/finance officer, and support staff. A board of volunteers
consisting of 15 members are at the top of management that give strategic advice to
the management board.
The board member are meeting quarterly, and based on need they are meeting before
end of quarter. There are a few functional committee in the board structure who are
dealing with specific cases and they are: conflict resolution committee, external
relation committee, Finance committee, and advocacy committee. The committee
members are meeting irregularly based on the need. One of the committee member
heading the committee and calls the meeting and present the decision and result to
the quarterly board meeting and AMSU management.
Better Afghanistan Organization for Peace and Human Rights (BAOPHR)
Contact No: +93775525588
Email: better.afg@gmail.com

Better Afghanistan Organization for Peace and Human Rights (BAOPHR) is a non-
governmental, non-political, non-profit organization established in the year 2008 in
Balkh Mari Sharif. The BAOPHR works to promote peace building, community justice,
gender equality promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan.

BAOPHRs vision is an Afghanistan where its citizens respect human rights, observe
culture of peace and adopt democratic elements and missions to seek creating lasting
solutions to human rights, civic engagement and good governance through capacity
building and mainstreaming initiatives in Afghanistan.

BAOPHR convers the Northern province under its project and services, and they are
Samangan, Balkh, Jozjan, Sari Pul, Faryab, Kunduz, Baghlan and Takhar Provinces.
The main area BAOPHR focuses are: (BAOPHR Strategic Plan 2014-2018)

Human Right
Peacebuilding
Promotion of Good Governance

The BAOPHR receiving financial support from different international donors in

Afghanistan, up to now DFID under Tawanmandi Program, Counterpart International,
Asia Foundation, UN Woman, Creative International, Free and Fair Election
Foundation for Afghanistan founded its projects in the Northern provinces.

The organization is managed by a managing director, and governed by a board of

trustee at the top. The management board consist of program manager, program
officers, admin finance officer, procurement manager, HR manager and logistic senior
officer.

The management staff are changing time to time based on the availability of project
fund by the international donors.

Below table summarizes the list of the projects implemented by PAOPHR: (BAPHR
Anual Report for 2008-2015)
 No Project Title Funded by Location of Duration Total
project Budget
1 Promoting the Rights & Balkh Province Nov 2008 Jan 2009 3084 USD
Mentality of Democracy
respect for women
in the society
2 Promoting the EVAW/ Mazar-e-Sharif & Jan end of Dec 29170,34
Mentality of UNIFEM Maimana 2009 USD
respect for women
in the society
3 Monitoring of FEFA 14district of Balkh Sep 2014. Nov 10000USD
election process province 2014
4 Skill building for US Embassy Mazar-e- Sharif 1th May 2011 -
Afghan women ( End of Aug 2011 9975 USD
Management,
Computer science,
English language
and Women Rights
5 Promoting the UNWOMEN Samangan, Juzjan Sep 2012 - 135147,6
Mentality of and Sarepul Sep 2013 USD
respect for women Provinces
in the society
6 Promote women Tawanmandi 14 District of Balkh Sep 2013 Sep 2014 183208
rights through Province USD
changing policy
and practicing
traditional norms
of Bad, Badal and
Mahar.
7 Women Right Asia Samangan Province Jan 2015- Dec 2015 400000USD
Promotion Project Foundation

This is organization is a donor depended organization, and covers it projects and

operation cost by the donors support. The director of the organization said we cant
keep our experienced staff, and we usually lose our experienced staff when our
project ends, and we can pay their salaries when we dont have committed fund from
donors.
He added that current BAOPHR has a good relation with the Balkh province and the
Balkh Based civil society organizations network. The BAOPHR has affiliation with the
directorate of women affair as the most of the project relation to women rights are
concerned with the governmental entity.
The director mentioned during his interview we dont have enough access to the
donor offices located in capital Kabul, and most of the time we can receive their
announcement for the project grants.
BAOPHR is doing advocacy but its staff has not the right skill for the doing advocacy
said the program manager, and emphasized that their staff need capacity building
course on Advocacy.

A Review of the Civil Society History in Afghanistan:

Civil Society has many decades history in Afghanistan, but this research focus is on
the modern civil society, which emerged after the fall of Taliban Regime in 2001. The
current modern civil society concept in Afghanistan started parallel to the
establishment of the Transitional Government in Afghanistan.

It can be due to two important reasons, one; improve environment, and security for
the civil society to work and emerge; second presence of opportunity of the donors
funding and support, especially the international community support for
reconstruction of Afghanistan and that was an important role for the civil society to
engage, and support the newly established government specially in service delivery,
and reconstruction.

After 2001, by establishing of transitional Afghan Government the civil society

organizations statues improved both in term of quality and quantity. If we have a look
to before 2001 there less number of civil society organizations formally registered and
present in Afghanistan. There were traditional, informal and not registered local civil
society organization with limited activities.

According to report generated by the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society (FCCS)
it shows that before the year 1990 there were only 6 civil society organizations were
registered with Government and were operating in Kabul. Between 1991 and year
2000 only 8 civil society organizations were registered by Afghan Government, by the
year 2001, 18 Civil Society Organization were registered with Government. After 2001
the number of the registered civil society organization dramatically increased, the
Government registration record show 86 CSO in 2002, 113 in 2003, 129 in 2004, 144 in
2005. Now the number of registered civils society organizations is 4105 local NGO,
and 437 International NGOs are registered with Ministry of Economy, and 2550
organizations as social organizations with Ministry of Justice. (ICNL, 2017)
The civil society organizations have grown qualitatively, it mean in term of their
internal capacity and experience with implementation different projects in the
health, education, human rights, peacebuilding and conflict resolution, media, and
construction.

International donors were funding project as they were committed for reconstruction
and rehabilitation of Afghan after war society. Civil Society organizations have
learned from their international counterparts in different field. The Afghan civil
society organizations staff have been trained and exposed to many other
international project over the world and they could learned and adopted best
practices in the Afghanistan to advance the role of the civil society organization and
a potential movement for reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The Afghan civil society organization unfortunately were more influenced by the
international donors, their agenda and project were funding by the donor, since these
civil society organization did not have financial source, the only source they were
depending on was the international donation. This is why these CSO were remained
dependent on the external donation by the international organization. They were
influencing more on selection projects and priority for funding rather than selecting
of the project by the Afghan CSOs.

This was one of the main reason that after in 2015 a number of Afghan CSOs collapsed
or retrenched their programs and structures due to fund restriction when
international community withdrew from Afghanistan in 2015.

Participation of the Afghan CSOs in the important events regarding Afghanistan future
and their contribution is an indicator of their growth. Participation and representation
of the Afghan civil society in the Landon Conference regarding Afghanistan in 2010,
Second Bonn conference in 2011, Chicago NATO summit in 2012 and Tokyo Conference
in July 2012 are indicators of significant growth in their role and engagement
throughout this decade. They represented the needs of the Afghans and give their
specific recommendations to the international community on their future
commitment for supporting Afghanistan.
Now a days in 2017 the Afghan civils society is more improved, in term of quantity,
and is present in every province of Afghanistan and providing services to the neediest
people specially were government can outreach services.

It is also more strong in term of quality, it means the afghan civil society learned
during last 17 year good practices from implementation of the projects in Afghanistan,
and learned from the exposing to the international projects and they learned and
adopted good practices to the afghan community. The current afghan civil society is
stronger, the 2001 when emerged and moved upward.

Understanding of Civil Society in Afghanistan:

Since the modern concept of the civil society initiated after 2001, therefore civil
society in Afghanistan is still too young, and still needs decades to reach to its
maturity. If we compare the civil society of Afghanistan with the civil society of India,
Europe, America it shows that still a long way is in front of the Afghan Civil Society to
reach to that maturity.

But over all the different program reports and civil society research reports shows
that Afghan Civil Society is growing in term of quantity and quality. The yearly
published report on CSOs which is published on yearly based by the name Civil Society
Organizations Sustainability Index by USAID show gradual and fast development of
Afghan Civil Society.

The researchers individual and focused group interviews with different with different
people shows that still there is different understanding on the term civil society
among Afghan citizens.

Educated people in urban area and rural area had different views and ideas about
civil society. There is not a common understanding on this term among people. The
local term used for Civil Society is Jamee a Madini.

Almost all individual and focused group interviews in the rural areas show that still
most of people in the rural areas has lack understanding on civil society. Since the
civil society organizations role in the rural areas were more providing welfare
services for poor communities and sometime were provided welfare services to the
disaster affected people therefore people were thinking that civil society organization
are only welfare organization who support needy people and distribute charity
support among poors.

In addition to that some the people who were benefited from the Non-Governmental
Organizations NGOs projects were thinking that civil society is limited to NGOs, who
are supported by foreigners. NGOs in Afghanistan almost all of them are supported
financially by the international donors, and in post 2001 the international military
forces who were working in the frame of Provincial Reconstruction Team PRT were
also donating financial grants to support projects in different field of contraction of
schools, bridges, roads, and small scale electricity generating infrastructure etc. This
why the rural area people were thinking that civil society ( NGO) staff are foreign
agents and some time they are targeted by the local insurgent groups, killed,
kidnapped or threatened.

In addition to the many awareness projects still this concept is dominant in the rural
area among people, as there is no continuous awareness programs for people to have
a clear understanding on civil society. This is the reason that Afghanistan rural areas
are not a safe zone for operation of civil society in Afghanistan, and usual the civil
worker national and internals are targeted by insurgents, killed or detained.

The urban and educated citizens view on civil society is different, individual
interviews with school students, university students ,and general community people
who are living in cities have covered under the media programs has different view on
civil society. They have more positive thinking and idea, the interview result in urban
area show that understanding of people on civil society is more and positive.

Rasool Dad, a student of 12 Grad of Syed Noor Mahammad Shah Mina School during his
interview said all those volunteer people working for welfare of people are civil
society activist He also wished to be a civil society activist in future to service Afghan
people.

Farooq student of second year of Journalism Faculty of Kabul University said during
his interview civil society is vital for a democratic state, its like eye on the
government activities, and it reaches the voice of minorities to the government and
advocate in behalf of those who are affected by disaster
Gul Rahim a teacher in Private School of Usmani Ghani Said, the current
development in our country , if its awareness level, education level or any
development happened after 2001, is all because of the civil society organizations,
because this was the civil society organizations who implemented awareness projects
for people on the human rights, civic rights now people let their girls to attend
school or work in offices which was banned at the time of Taliban Regime.

In summary we can say that understanding of people in Afghanistan on civil society is

different from urban to rural areas. Urban area people have more supportive and
positive thinking about civil society while the rural areas people are still have negative
thinking about civil society, and still they think that civil society organizations are
forging agents, and looking for gathering intelligence information.

The rural areas are still a challenging field for the Afghan civil society organizations
to operate while they are mostly in need to be supported rather than the urban based
people. Urban based people fortunately has a good level of understanding , and have
access to information and resources more than then the people living in rural area,
therefore the civil organizations are more focusing its project and services to the
urban area which is safe for them and their staff to operate.

Position of Civil Society Organizations in Afghanistan:

Since the definition of civil society is that that it is an arena between Government
and community people or households where people of common interest and values
are coming together. Considering this characteristic the Afghanistan civil society is in
the position that is laid between Government and it constituencies.

Ideally civil society organization between people and Government is neutral which
almost reality in Afghanistan, in rear cases the civil society organization are
influenced by some donors or by politicians and are not in the neutral position, usually
these organization are positioning themselves against the political system, criticizing
the Governmental leaders, doing demonstration, releasing press release, organizing
setting, and shouting to the Government. These civil society organization are
established by some former or dismissed Governmental officials, such as Afghanistan
Green Trend AGT which was established by the former Afghan Chief of intelligence,
and after his dismissal from the Government he established a civil society organization
by the name of Afghanistan Green Trend which he was leading a group of youth with
the similar idea of anti-Government. Usually they were criticizing Government
policies, and decisions.

While the rest of almost all Afghan civil society position is neutral and they are in the
position of support government and community people whit consideration the benefit
of people at the top.

Civil society organizations in Afghanistan are representing different groups of people

with different goals, and values, now a day there are civil society organizations
representing women, representing youth, representing people with disability, and
there are organizations who are constituted by the Minorities like Hindu, Turkish, and
Baloch. These organization are formed by specific groups and is engaged for defending
of their right and doing advocacy for realization of their rights.

In Addition to the constituency specific civil society organization, there are

organizations are working in different fields and providing services to different
community and people. For example there organizations working for peace building
such Sanaee Development Organization SDO , Afghan Womens Network and Afghan
Womens Educational Center AWEC is working for women, women empowerment, and
Gender equality. Afghan Civil Society Forum Organization ACSFO is working as plate
form for coordination of CSOs in Afghanistan and is a leading organization for working
for youth, Da Qanoon Ghoshtunky DQG is an organization working on implementation
of law and to make sure that law is implemented concerning individuals in courts, and
Civil Society Human Rights Network CSHRN is working on rights issue and
implementing project on rights awareness and advocacy for right of different groups
including women, children and minorities.

Overall the civil society organizations in Afghanistan are working for welfare of
society, and for interest of people. They are advocating on behalf of them, or with
them, or doing advocacy for them. They are working in different way with people,
sometime they are taking a role of capacity building and developing and strengthening
capacity if a group of people so that they can become enable and ask for their rights.
In some cases they are in the role of leader they are leading and advocacy initiative,
and they make people to accompany the organization and reach their voices to the
government and decision makers to pursue a specific decision and or change
something for benefit of people. While in some cases civil society organization are
acting as mediator and doing mediation between Government and people, usual
taking a role to be a plate form where governmental decision makers and people can
meet face to face and talk.

Even the civil society organizations position against the insurgent groups in
Afghanistan who are actively involved in civil war is neutral, and does not take any
side, but always shout on the engaged parties of war to come and set for peace, do
not target civilians during their military operations and dont shield civilians when
attack on each other.

To conclude the position of the civil society in Afghanistan, we can say it has a neutral
position while doing everything in behalf of people for benefit of people. It has a
supportive role to the government with providing information and capacity building
to the Key Government Decision Makers, and making a liaison between people and
Government.

Types of Civil Society Organizations:

There are many types of civils society organizations in Afghanistan, and its based on
the nature of the structure and the work they are doing. Below are the main category
of the civil society organization those are operating in Afghanistan.
1. Traditional Shura:

Shura is Arabic word, it means Council. Traditional Shura are usual the typical civil
society organization in local level, it is made of collection of the community elders,
representative of people and religious leaders.

Usually this is very grass root level organization and is not formal and registered with
Government, but it is recognized by the community people, local government
sometime.

Its main functions are conflict resolution on community level, on issues of water, land,
and other community level issue brought by people to the Shura. It works as a decision
making body in the related community. Usually elders and influential are member of
Shura and people respect their decisions. In addition to conflict resolution they are
taking important decision regarding their community such any development work,
problem solving, or communication with local government etc.

Structurally these civil society organizations does have a formal structure but have a
person as Shura head who leading the Shura, calling the Shura meeting , conclude
discussion, announce decisions, and keep over look on the activity of Shura. There is
also an assistant/deputy to the head of Shura who covers the head responsibility in
his absence.

The rest of people who are part of Shura are called members of Shura , they dont
have official venue, and usually come to gather in their village in an open space, or
some ones house.

2. Community Development Councils (CDC)

These are community based local organizations similar like Shura, but more formal
and registered with Government. The CDCs are established by Government and they
are operating independently out of Government. These organizations are registered
with Ministry of Rural Development of Republic of Afghanistan.

The members of these organizations are community elders and influential. The
number of members differs from 10-25 members, and usual there is a unified structure
in all CDCs in Afghanistan.

The structure is there is CDC head, Deputy Head, Treasurer, secretary and general
members of Shura. The head of CDC is managing the overall activities of the CDC and
lead the meetings and decision making process of CDC. Deputy of CDC head is assisting
the head and covers his responsibilities while he is not present. The treasure keeps
the money and record the expense of the CDC. The secretary looks after record
keeping filing, and recording the minutes of CDC meetings.

The functions of CDCs are more dominant and formal in comparison to the Shura as it
is a formal body and registered with Government, and mainly includes decision making
on development of community, identification and implementation of community
development projects.
There is CDC Guideline Manual which is a guiding manual for the operation of CDCs
throughout Afghanistan; this is why there is unified structure, and type work which
CDCs are doing.

The National Solidarity Program (NSP), a community development program which was
funded by World Bank was implemented by the CDCs in last one and half decade and
ended in Dec 2016. This project was designed by the current President Mohammad
Ashraf Ghani. The follow-up of the NSP is the Citizen Charter Program which started
in beginning 2017, and will be implemented by the CDCs.

CDs does not have formal system of management, finance and administration in place,
just the CDs guideline book is their operational document which states how the CDs
should operate, and how to select their members and elect their head and other
members.

3. Artistic Organizations:

These organizations are usually a group of people who are usually called themselves
Art lord, and doing cultural and artistic activities to show that to represent their
constituencies and deliver their massaged to their target group.

This type of civil society organization were less in Afghanistan, the reason might be
the cultural a tradition limitation which was not flexible, but in the recent year the
number of such type organization increased specially in capital Kabul. Mainly these
organization include music groups, reading group, drawing group, drama and show
group.
Omaid Sharifi is a civil society acitivist , and leading an artist group, they started an
initiative of painting massaged and picture on wall of important offices where it was
exposed to the public, they are painting massages on anti- corruption, Gender
equality and call for peace. This artist group even travelled to out of Afghanistan to
Paris and painted wall and with massages from Afghanistan. Blow picture shows this
artist group painting pictures on the wall in Paris.

Afghan Artistic Group paintings and wall massage on Kabul City Walls
The head of this artist group is recently recognized by the first lady of Afghanistan
and she appreciated his effort on his civic activities.

4. Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs)

These are the general service delivery organizations and are working and delivering
public services. These organization are usually more organized and structured, and
has formal systems in place. Usually these organization are financially supported by
the external donor organizations and implementing different project throughout
Afghanistan.
The main field these organization providing services are education, agriculture,
construction, and health care services. These organizations sometime providing the
public service in behalf of Government or to support government where government
dont have access or cant provide service due to technical or financial resource
deficiency.
In the next chapter there are a couple example of these organizations which
researcher visited some of them during his data gathering for this report.

5. Professional Organizations

This group of civil society organizations include unions, associations, foundations,

which usually volunteer members with the similar objectives. These organizations are
classified as social organization and registered with Ministry of Justice of Republic of
Afghanistan. The Social Organizational Law is in acted and implemented by the
Ministry of Justice to regulate the activities of these organizations.

These organization are acting as plate form of dialogue for a joint advocacy for its
members who have similar interest. Additionally their activities include conflict
among members, influencing government on decision affecting their members, and
rarely service delivery. The members of these organization are usually volunteers and
they pay a specific membership fee for their organization to run its operation.
Researcher visited an association of private hospitals; Afghanistan Private Hospital
Association (APHA), and a union, Afghanistan Medicine Service Providers Union
(AMSU). The detail of the visit findings is in the next chapter.

Civil Society and Islam:

15 Centuries when Prophet Mohammad Pease be upon him left Makka and migrated
to Yesrib he put the base of Islamic civil society in Yesrib and from then its called
Madinah. In Arabic Madinah is derived from Madan which means civilization, and
urbanization. He put the value of a civilized living in the Madinah City for his followers
and residents of Madinah. Muslim and non-Muslims were living in the same city but
were respecting each other values. They had different trade, socio-economic and
political relations. For example they had buying and selling deal with each other, they
were recruiting each other as labor, there are examples of conflict resolution of
Muslim and non-Muslims when Hazrat Omer the second Islam Khalifa took decision for
the disputing parties.

Different democratic practices were used by the Prophet Mohammad and his followers
and then by Kholafay Rashidin. As example we can say participatory decisions, Shura
of Elders who was taking important decisions, selection of Khalifa (Political Leader)
etc are the examples of democratic practices.

By passing time the situation of Islamic civil society improved when Muslims
conquered, other countries in Europe and Pars, different volunteer organizations of
people established for welfare services and community development.

In current century we are wetness of many Islamic Civil Society Organizations

throughout the world but mostly in Muslim populated countries like, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Arabic Countries.
In principle not only Islam is against civil society which some people are thinking, but
it encourages Muslims for practicing democratic values. Now a remarkable part of
world civil society is Muslim Civil society.

Role and functions of Civil Society Organizations in Afghanistan

Civil society in Afghanistan has been as a change agent, and its this role was
prominent after 2001, when the floor was open for the civil society organization to
work for change.
Many civil society organizations established with different mandate and vision for
specific missions. Since 2001 the civil society organization played signification role in
the changing the situation in Afghanistan. Many projects in the fields of Education,
Human Rights, Agriculture, Capacity Building, Infrastructure development, Media and
Communication, Advocacy, Health, Anti-Corruption, Rural Program Development
project implemented throughout Afghanistan. These projects and civil society efforts
contributed to the significant changes in Afghanistan. The major role of the played
by the civils society organization are:

Service Delivery: civil society organizations contribute significantly to the service

delivery in Afghanistan. Usually public service delivery is the responsibility of the
Government, but since the Government is newly established and still not able to
provide services to the meet the citizens demands therefore; Government used the
potentiality of and available skill of civil society. Civil society organizations provided
public services in Education, health, infrastructure, rural development, throughout
Afghanistan and benefited households. Government was not able to provide and have
access especially in rural area. Civil society organizations have access throughout the
country and since civil society organizations are natural entities therefore was able
to work on those area where anti-Government insurgents were dominant.
There are many projects and services which civil society organizations provided it to
the public in behalf of the government. The CSOs used the funding sources from
Government or from the external donors. The current examples is the service delivery
project are provision of Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS), and Essential
Package of Health Service (EPHS) which are provided by Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs). There many schools and community based education classes
that provided by the NGOs in Afghanistan. Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA)
is one of the NGOs who is implementing large education program in those areas where
Government cant have access or cant address the community need. For example
arranging education classes for Kochi, and community based classes for those children
and literacy courses for adult who cant attended the Governmental Schools.

Creating employment Opportunities for public: Civil society organization especially

NGOs employed significant part of the population as its staff and employees. They
were employed by as short term employee, or long term staff. This contributed with
the developing the economy of households. The major problem here is that the NGOs
jobs are not consistent, and not long term. Usually its project based and supported
by the donors funding. Therefore it is not stick to the reasonably salary scale.

Advocacy: Civil society organization are playing important role as advocates in behalf
of affected people. They are using different approaches of advocacy, usually they are
suing three approaches for their advocacy. The first approaches is advocacy in behalf
of people: some of the organizations are doing advocacy in behalf a group of affected
people. In this case the group of affected people are not enough strong to ask for
their rights; this is why the civil society organizations as an expert doing advocacy for
them.
The second approach is advocacy along with people; in this case the affected group
of people are somehow strong and they need just a plate form to talk with decision
makers and civil society is providing this opportunity for them. Civils society
organization are accompanying the affected people in this approach of advocacy and
make every possible facility for them to influence the decision maker to for a decision
in favors of them.

The third approach is advocacy through people; in this case the civil society
organizations is building the advocacy capacity of the affected people and give the
strength and skill how to ask for their rights, and how to influence decision to take a
decision in behalf of them.

The researcher observed that the civil society organizations mostly NGOs in
Afghanistan one or two or a mixed of the above approaches in their advocacy projects.
It is depended on the nature of the project, the affected groups capacity, and the
target decision makers.
There are many examples of the
Capacity Building of Government: Civil society organizations are building the
capacity of the governmental entities through providing trainings and workshops,
organizing learning opportunities out of the country from the similar organizations,
providing of the technical assistance, and advice through deploying the advisors and
consultant in their offices. There are many staff of NGOs are working as consultants
and advisor in different Ministries of Afghanistan and providing technical support and
guidance to the local team of employees. This process is building the technical
capacity of the governmental employees.

Observation from the Governmental Performance: Civil society organization are

playing role as watch dog in Afghanistan and observing the Governmental performance
and feedback to the Governmental entities such presidential place, through their
advocacy shouting, direct consultative meeting when government aske and hear from
them or influencing the legislative bodies such as Parliament members.
Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA), and Free and Fair Election
Foundation (FEFA) are the examples of the watch dog civil society organizations on
the Election process. They are ensuring a free and fair Election process in Afghanistan.
Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) is another watch dog organization observing
transparency and doing research on corruption cases. IWA produces regularly reports
on corruption cases in Afghanistan.

Public Awareness: This is one of the major engagement of the Afghan civil society
organization, which provide public awareness on the Afghan citizen on the issues of
Human Rights, Laws, Governmental Policies and international conventions. The
purpose is to increase the awareness of Afghan Citizen ,so that the know their rights
and the Governmental responsibilities. This make built the capacity of citizen and
they are in turn ask for the good governance from their national and subnational
governmental entities.
When citizen understand the international conventions they put respect to the human
being and make themselves committed to follow some certain life and behavior
standards those are essential for a sound community.
During last presidential elections the NGOs in Afghanistan did considerable awareness
for the citizen on their civic engagement rights so that they can use the civic right of
voting and making themselves electing for the provincial councils and parliament.
This is the result of the community awareness of the NGOs that now we have many
female members as part of provincial councils and parliament which we did not had
before 2001.

Every year in the Afghanistan we are witness of increase in the number of girls going
to schools, this is came at the result of community awareness on the right of education
for girl, NGOs helped the parents to let their daughters go to school, have choice of
selection of their life partner at the time of marriage.

The civil society organization did many awareness project on banning bad community
practices. The researcher met Better Afghanistan Organization for Peace and Human
Rights (BAOPHR) who implemented a couple of project on the rights awareness
focused on banning the bad community practices, such Bad (giving a girl to force
marriage to the opposite party for resolution of dispute) and Badal ( substitute a girl
with another family for marriage).
Implementing the awareness projecting by the civil society in Afghanistan reduced
the number of violence against women.

Community Mobilization: This is one of the significant function of the civil society
organization that mobilize the public, especially in the national events, such as
election process. During last 3 presidential election civil society organization played
important role on mobilizing people for the election process. According to the
Independent Election Commission Report 60% of the voting eligible people attended
the voting polling and used their voting during recent presidential election with is the
highest percentage considering the previous election. And this all the result of the
community mobilization did by the civil society organizations.

There are other examples of the community mobilization events did by the Afghan
civil society organizations, such as organization of a large demonstration and
mobilizing Kabul Citizens demanding justice when a 27 year old girl (Farkhonda) was
beaten to death by a mob in Kabul city. This resulted the Government took significant
steps such as suspending the position of the responsible security officer and
introduced for to the judicial organizations for trial.
 Demonstration by the Civil Society activist demanding justice for Farkhonda a 27 years girl killed by a mob
in Kabul City in front of Shahi Du Shamshira Grave Yard.
Photo from(Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Enabling Environment for Civil Society Organization:

The environment for civil society organization getting better from 200l. The number
of civil society organizations increased. Since after the establishment of the
Afghanistan transitional government there was a great need for the reconstruction
and service delivery therefore new scope of work for civil society organizations
created. International donors were allocating large amount of monetary sources for
implementation of different project in Afghanistan and civil society organization were
engaged in implementation of different project. This is caused growth of civil society
organization and they learn service delivery, and how to identify the need of the
community they are serving.

Many civil society organization which initiated from 2-5 staff grew to a large
organizations, and now have hundreds of staff, and many offices throughout
Afghanistan.

People who were out of Afghanistan and migrated during war to Pakistan, Iran, and
Europe and United State returned back to Afghanistan with academic degrees and
experience they got during the years they were out of Afghanistan as refugee. These
returnees were hired as staff for the civil society organizations especially with NGOs
and were serving as technical staff. This is also caused a growth step to the CSOs.

There are 4 factors that significantly affects the working environment for civil society
organizations and they are 1) The available Legal Environment 2) Socio-Culture
Environment, 3) Civil Society-Governmental Relation 4) Financial Source for Civil
Society Organizations. Each of these factors are discussed further in detail below:

Legal Environment for civil society organizations: There are two laws in acted in
Afghanistan those regulate the work of civil society organizations first the is the Social
Organizations Law which is in acted for all the social organizations who are registered
with the Ministry of Justice of Republic of Afghanistan, this Law is applied to
Associations, Unions, Youth Group, Peace Group, Community Based Groups, Political
Parties, and other socio-culture organizations.

The first social organization law was adopted and approved by the Afghanistan
Government on 13 Jan 2003, and announced through the official Gazette that include
25 articles in 4 chapters. It details how the social organization can be established,
who can be members? How to dissolve and terminate the organization and all the
conditions related to these situation.

In 2005 Afghanistan Cabinet took a decision regarding the social organizations

including the political parties that prohibit them from receiving external/
international funding. But this decision were not applied on the social organizations.
Still many social organization are receiving the international funding from different
international donors or the available embassies in Afghanistan.

NGO Law is a more organized and comprehensive document that regulate the work of
Non-Governmental organization in Afghanistan, first it was adopted and signed by the
president on June 2005. (ICNL, 2017) There are many problems and barriers that need
amendment n the law. The International Center for Non- for Profit Law (ICNL)
supported on Afghan NGOs to reflect on this law and collect their recommendation
for amendment and helped them to advocate for brining reform in this law. The
amendment is ready to be presented to the Afghanistan General Assembly which is
still waiting for approval.
The current NGO Law is adopted in 48 articles and 7 Chapter announced through the
Official Gazette number.

Socio-Cultural Environment for Civil Society Organizations: The social environment

for the civil society organizations remarkably changed since 2002, and improving day
by. Although there are were challenges socially that prevented the work of civil
society organization, but by passage of time now it decreased.

Security situation in the physical environment where the civil society organization are
working is an important factoring. This situation was had fluctuations. And it was
different form in the urban and rural area. In most case in the rural are specially in
the south of Afghanistan where the area was under the control of insurgents the non-
governmental organization could not implement projects. In many cases insurgents
abducted, arrested , killed the NGO staff in different provinces of Afghanistan.

From Jan2017- Now 11647 incidents recorded, from which 65 incident were belong to
the NGOs of the different type security incidents throughout Afghanistan. (INSO, 2017
Report)

NGO security Incidents by type Jan-May 2017

4 2
7

11

17
10

5
9

Indirect Fire Abduction Robberies Intimmadition Small Arm Fire IED Other Arest
 NGO Security Incidents Jan- May 2017
16 15 15
14
14
12
Number of Incidents 12

10 9

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Professional Staffing, and finding technical staff in the communities where NGOs were
working was another social actor that affect NGOs work. During 2002- 2007 the
number of the technical staff were less and many international experts were working
with Afghan local NGOs providing different technical support and services to the
NGOs. It was too difficult for NGOs to bear hiring of international staff since they
were expecting higher salaries and needed security which was cosign higher for the
NGOs. But now a day the situation improved many Afghan returned to their country
and from abroad and working with these organization instead of international staff.
Now the relay of NGO for providing technical and professional support is more relays
on the Afghan staff.

Community interaction against the NGOs is one of another social factor that affect
the working environment for the civil society organization especially for NGOs. In 2001
the concept to community people to ward NGOs were not enough good people were
not trusting on NGOs specially forging organizations they were thinking that these or
the intelligent agents of forging countries, therefor they were avoiding working with
NGOs nor let NGOs work for their communities. Later when the level of awareness
increased and many local people hired in NGOs the situation improved. Now NGOs are
working in Rural Area even in the areas where it under the control to insurgent and
anti-Governmental armed parties. Swedish Committee for Afghanistan is working
through its four major programs in the Afghanistan rural area with the most grass root
level people.
Access to resources in the communities including monitory and non-monitory
resources is another social factor. Financial resources were fluctuating up and down.
2002- 2015 there were a good funding opportunities for NGOs they could raise fund
for their projects and serve their communities. After 2015 the level of funding to the
Afghanistan decreased and large donors turned their face toward Iraq, Syria and
Yamen where the civil war affected people.

Civil society Governmental Relation Is another relevant environmental faction for the
Afghan civil society organizations that is significantly improved and still growing from
2001.

After 2001 when the international forces run Taliban from the power and new
transitional government established the process of democratization simultaneous
started. This western strategy that support the civil society role to cultivate
democracy in post war countries, and this is a successful strategy. This is also
successful strategy in Afghanistan as well.

Since the number of the civil society organization increased since 2002, at the same
time their interaction with the government improved. Now a days the civil society
organizations have established a very good relation with national and subnational
government.

In many cases now the government listen and hear the civil society advice and aske
their input in important national matters. There are many evidence and example of
the government and Afghan civil society cooperation. Some of them are:

2016 Brussel Conference on Afghanistan the Afghan civil society in cooperation with
government did a national consultation throughout the country and collected the view
of many Afghans and reflected to the International community so that to put it the
Afghan Government priority plan. The other such examples are NATO Warsaw Summit,
and 2014 London Conference on Afghanistan.

There are many advocacy working groups of the civil society organizations that have
interaction with government such as below: (AFGHAN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM
(ACEP))
The civil society Advocacy Group on the National Budget which usually advocating on
the national budget with parliament and Ministry of Finance. The Parliamentary
Technical Working Group of Family Law who did many consultation with different
group of people and scholars and developed the draft of family law, the Advocacy
Group for People with Disability which is advocating and working with Government on
issue of disability.

Since establishment of National Unity Government the civil society and government
interaction is not systematic, and it relatively ad hoc and if it continues this
undermine the image of the National Unity Government. (AREU Report by Orzala
Ashraf Nemat and Karin Werner, July 2016)

Although there is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Government and

Civil Society for their interaction but it need to be fully implemented and respected
by the Nation Unity Government.

Donors and International Community Role in Afghan Civil Society Developent

International community and their representative donor agencies palyed and

important role in capacity development of the Afghanistan Civil Scociety since 2002.

Their support were included monetary and non monitary supports to the Afghan Civil
Society Organizatoins. There is not an exact known figure that totally how mcuh
dollars donated by the donors and international community to the Afghan civil society
organizations.
The United State through United State Agency for International Development (USAID)
, United Kingdom through Department for International Development (DFID), Japan
through Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA), United Nation Offices
through UNDP, UNHCR, UNODC, UNEP,UNESCO, UN Woman and UNECF, Erupian
Commission, and World Bank are the major donors who supported the Afghanistan
mega projectes through funding Government, and NGOs projects.

The United State Agency for International Development conribution in soupporting

the Afghan Civil Society was more then other donors.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) Quarterly
Report June 2016 shows that US spent 115 billion USD in Afghanistan from 2002 to
2016. Most of this fund (64.13%) is spent in the security sector, and 28.68% spent for
humaniterian aids which mostly used by the Afghan civil society organizatios. Below
graph from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)
Quarterly Report June 2016 shows the segrigation of aid to the different sectors. The
least amont to the US aid spent for counter norcotics in Afghanistan.

The humaniterian grants and development grants spent through the Afghan civils
society organziation through contracts and project grants.

US Aid to Afghanistan 2002- 2016

2.98

8.48

10.68

64.13
28.68

Security Governance & Development

Civilian Operation Counter Norcotics
Humanterian Aids

Most the grant donation to the Afghan civil society organizations provided directly
through a cooperativie grant, project grant, or a contract and civil society
organization implemented and delivered the services.

In addition there were trust fund program where several donors were collectively
funding one program. There were many such examples for example Tawanmandi a
Nordic plus funding program 2012-2015 funded by Narway, Denmark, Sweden, and UK.
Afghanistan Reconstraction Fund ( ARTF) is another trust fudn program where multiple
donor contributed.

There were many other programs where the donors channelled the grants to Afghan
civil society organizations such as National Soliderity Program (NSP), Initiative to
Promote to Afghan Civil Society (I-PACS), Ambassador Small Grant Program for Gender
Equity (ASGP). Afghan Civil Society Orgnanizations mostly NGOs were received grants
and financial support through these program and implmented their project.

In addition to the provision of financial suppor the donors provided non-monitary

capacity development support to the Afghan civil society organziations. This cuased
improving the capacity of Afghan Civil Society Organization in project design ,
implmentation and service delivery.
Thoughout the project implementation the civil society organization were receiving
technical advioce from the technical eperts from the donor agency and their own
direct experts which cuased to add to their experience.

Initiative to Promote to Afghan Civil Society (I-PACS), and Tawanmandi the two
program funded by USAID, and DFID were for the capcity developent and strentheining
of the Civil Society Organizaions.

Around 400 civil society oranizations were targeted by I-PACS program, and 107 civil
society organizations were targeted under Tawanmandi program. These organizations
were receiving financial suport for implmentation of their projects and at the same
time were recieiving capacity development supports. The reasercher was working
from Oct 2006- Sep 2012 in I-PACS program as capacity development manager, and
from Sep 2012- Dec 2015 as capacity development manager with Tawanmandi program
and was managing the capacity development support to the Afghan Civil Society
Organizations.

The donors organization understanding from the Afghanistan community and their
needs were not in the level to plan proper allocation of their supports, and this was
a challenge the cuased in effectiveness of the donors fund to Afghanistan.
The donors were allocating their money in specific sector for specific project and the
Afghan Civil Society Organziation specailly NGOs did have any other choice but to
accept these grants for their organization survival.

In some cases these grant were not according to the need of community and this is
why these were not sustainable projects. Community people could not sustaint the
effect of those projects after their closure.
In the above cased the Afghan Civil Society Organization were more donor driven
organziatio rathere then a real organizaion which pursuing it own priority goals.

The NGOs had no choice but to accept the grant event it was not with in their vision
and mission. Accepting these grant were necessary for the keeping them survived and
operational.

Most of the the NGOs were closed when the international support to the Afghanistan
decreased in 2014, due to fund short some organizations retrenched their structure
and many closed as they did not have funding any more.

In addition to the the capacity developent grants from the donors and techincal
assitance through the projects or by experts the donors specially USAID did a lot of
efforts for the capacity development of the Afghan civil society organizations. A
remarkable step in this area is establishment of the Afghanistan Inistituate for Civil
Society (AICS), which is a significant step in the growth of Afghan Civil Society
Organizations.

Afghanistan Inistitute for Civil Society (AICS)

On 17 Feb 2015 Afghanitan Inistitute for Civil Society officially lunched and it is
established following the Enabling Eviroment Conference for civil society held in Kabul
4-6 June 2007. The key stakeholders of this conference the Government of
Afghanistan, Agha Khan Development Net Work, World Bank, United Nation
Development Program ( UNDP), and Asian Development Bank decided that an
independent certification body for the Afghan Civil Society Organizations to be
established to be recognized by the Government of Afghanista, donors , private
sector, and civil society organizations. (AKF USA , n.d.).
The inistituet is established as joined project by Agha Khan Foundation and
Counterpart International , and then regestered as and independent NGO with the
Minsitry of Economy of Governament of Afghanistan.

Since its estlishment of the Inistitute it is financially support by USAID through

Counterpart International Afghanistan Civic Engagment Project (ACEP).

According to the interview with the directore of AISCThe main purposes of establishing
of the Civil Society Inistitute are: 1) raise the credibility of the Afghan civil society
organizations by certifying then against the defined standards
2). Capacity developeing of the civil society organizaitons systematically so that can
be eligible to be certified
3) To strengthen the role of the civil scociety organization in Afghanistan to do
advoacacy
4) and to provide an channel of resource to the Afghan CSOs strenthen their social
responsibility efforts.

Its vision is an Afghanistan where every citizen enjoys life in a democratic country
with full participation and contribution to the sustainable development of a peaceful,
fair and just society and its mission is To support the growth of a vibrant, credible
and competent civil society sector in Afghanistan (Afghanistan Inistitute for Civil
Society, n.d.)
The establisment of the Afghanistan Inistitute for Civil Society was an important step
toward the growth of the local civil society organization. On the first occation AICS
awarded certificates for a batch of 9 below orgnanizations.

1. Empowerment Centre for Women (ECW)

2. Development and Ability Organization (DAO)
3. Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation and Recreation (AABRAR)
4. Training Human Rights Association for Afghan Women (THRA)
5. Shuhada Organization (SO)
6. Help the Afghan Children (HTAC)
7. Coordination of Rehabilitation and development Services for Afghanistan
8. (CRDSA), Afghanistan Civil Society Forum (ACSFo)
9. Women Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA)

(Afghanistan Inistitute of Civil Society, n.d.)

The AISC assessed the target orgnizations different areas against specific standards
and gaged their capacity and then then certified their capacity through awarding an
officail certificate.

This cerfication process increases the credibility of the local CSOs, which
subsequently donors are considering them for implementing and funding their
projects.
This certification process also provoke the need for the capacity building of the civil
society organization further. Those orgnization who participates in the AICS
assessemtn and cant pass to be certified then recievd a list of feedback and
recommendation for their further capacity development. Once they did their capacity
building then they again apply for certification program.

Internal Capacity of the Afghan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs):

The internal capacity of the Afghan CSOs were a moving a up from 2002 to 2016.
Although this capacity were remained stable between 2014- 2016 when funding
opportunities from international donors decreased.
The important factor behind the capacity growth of the Afghan CSOs were the
international support, and the critical Afghan communit needs that make the Afghan
CSOs to respond and addopt them to address the need of their target communities
and the requiment of the donors funded their projects.

The Afghan Civil Society organizations by using this opportunity built their interal
capacities in governance, financial management, project managing , external
relation, and adovacy and service delivery.
USAID publishes Civil Society Index Report yearly and indicate that measre of Afghan
Civil Society sustainability indicators.

Organizational management capcity: According the USAID published Civil Society

Index Report- 2015 the the organizational management capcity of the Afghan Civil
Society Oranization remained stable. (USAID Civil Society Index Report, 2015)

Afghan Civil Society Organizational Capacity Trends 2011-2015: From Civil Society 2015
Index Report ;P4

The donors in Afghnistan were providing short term projects and this why the Afghan
Civil Society Organization could not keep their perminant paid staff for long time,
they could have them only with in the time fram of their funding projects and then
were losing their proffisional staff. This was a big challenge for the Afghan CSOs
internal capacity. The instituatioin capacity of the CSOs were going when their
copetant and experienced staff were leaving the organizationi due to end of his/her
working contract.
Financial Management and Resources Mobilization capacity:
Since 2002 the Afghan Civil Society orgnization were mostly relaying on the donors
funds, this is why afte the end their project contract they could not sustain their
project and staff.
Some of the orgnization were closed when the donors support to Afghanitan reduced
Accordging the Afghanistan Insitite for Civil Society Policy Brief Report page-1 as of
Feb 2017 only 1863 NGOs remained active from the total 4105 regisred NGOs with

Afghan Civil Society Policy Brief Report page -1

Ministry of Economy. (AICS Policy Brief Report, 2017).

The above graph shows that the funding amount trend from 2012- 2016.
In addition to the donor the are potential source of funding for the Afghan CSOs which
less touched by CSOs, they are: Collection of Zakat and using it for the welfare
projects, partnership with private sector, atracting community contribution both
monitary and in kind contribution,membership fee, and production projects.

But there is not mechanism and system for collection of Zakat to be used for the
walfare services, from other side the community people does not have trust on NGOs
as they are donors dirven to give their Zakat for them.
Some of the NGOs could attract the community contribution both in kind and
monitary, specially in kind contribution such collecting of food items,medicine,
clothes, wather for desaster affected people are usual in Afghanistan.

In the recent years some of the community based orgnization and event NGOs started
income generating project that sells their project products and through the make
money to covery their operation costing and make them sustainable. The example are
NGO working in the East such as Afghan Disabled and Vulnerable Society (ADVS) has a
project of making detergent liquids for the people with disability, some of the
organization like AWEC has Pickle, and Jam production projects which usually women
are working their. In the North of the Afghanistan NGOs like AWEC has carepet
weaving project which usually women are engaged.
For the survival of the local civil society organization mobilizing funds and resource
from the local community is important, has to beuse as alternative source of fund.

Service delivery capacity: The service delivery capacity of the Afghan Civil Society
Organizations is almost in a very good condistion. Since the Afghan CSOs were mostly
involoved in service delivery projects since establishment of the new Afghan
Government. At the beginning of the Government, it was weak and could have enough
capacity and coverage to provide services thorugh out Afghanistn for the citizens.
Therefore the CSOs were covering this role, and were providing services in defferent
sectro of education, health , agriculture, infrastructure development, rural
development, human right awarness, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

In 2015 when the funding amount decreas the donors were less funding the Afghan
CSOs service delivery project therefore the number and amount of the service
delivery by the CSOs decreased.

From otherside Governent become stronger and imporved it coverage and reachout
to the rural area to the citizens.

Advocacy Capacity: After decreasig the service delivery role of the CSOs their
advocacy role incerased. This was the need of the time and citizen. Since the
Government introduced new laws , policies and regulations and citizen had to be
involved at the initial stage of devloping the law, policies and regulation or had to do
advoacy to reform laws, and policies.
CSOs were orgnizing and mobilizing citizen for their advoacy efforts and were making
a platform for the Government, and Citizens to talk and issues of laws and policies.

Afghan CSO did advoacy in behalf of people , sometime along with people and
somtime did it by people. In the all above cases the CSOs built the capacity of people
through awarness raising, and learning them the advoacacy skills so that to inflence
decision makder

Communication and public relation: Communicaiton and Public Relation capacity of

the CSOs significantly imporved since 2002, now the Afghan CSOs established relation
with the international stakehloder from the CSOs and the donors.

Further not the Afghan CSOs engages it constituncies in the planing , decision making
and project design stages, and have the voice of direct benificiaries.

Different means of communication is used by the CSO form the formal meeting,
gathering, to broadcasting through radio , television, website, social media (
facebook, twitter, youtube, and Wattsup).

Brochure, leaflet, monthly, quarterly and annual publishings are usual amonth SCO
for communicating with publich and their target groups.
Civil Society Challenges:

Since Afghanistan democratic community is still too young, the civil society sector has
many challenges. During this one and half decades they faced with many challenges
from the insecurity to less funding opportunity that resulted collapsing and
retrenching of the CSOs. Some of the key challenges the interviewees from the civil
organizations pointed out are:

Insecurity
Insecurity for the civil society organizations are of the most significant challenges in
Afghanistan that affected their operations and projects.
From Jan to July2017- a total of 11647 incidents recorded International NGOs Safety
Organization (INSO), from which 65 incidents were belong to the Afghan NGOs of the
different type security incidents throughout Afghanistan. (INSO, 2017)

The insecurity cases are different form threating the NGOs staff to abducting them,
and killing them in their field of work on the way from their work. In many cases the
insurgents are abducting the NGO staff to get money for releasing them and this is
used as one of their strategy for sustaining the fight going on in Afghanistan.

The foreign NGO staff are more prone to the insecurity, since 2002 many International
employees of the Afghan NGOs are killed, abducted or injured during different
security events.

NGOs specially the international NGOs are using considerable amount of their funding
on their security measures to protect their offices and personnel.
During 2002- 2013 there were many private security companies in Afghanistan
providing security services to the CSOs (mostly international NGOs), as the Afghan
Government could not respond to provide the enough security forces and services
needed for the international organizations and diplomatic office. Later beginning
2014 the Government of Afghanistan decided to close the private security companies
and replace their service by the Afghan Forces. Just limited number of the security
companies now are available with provides security guards and services to the
international organizations.

Corruption
Corruption is another challenges that is affecting the function of the Afghan Civil
Society organizations. The National Corruption Survey Report December 2016 by
Integrity Watch Afghanistan report mentioned that 3 Billion USD were paid in bribes
in the last one year an almost 50% increase compared to 2014. The amount of bribes
estimated is much higher than the Afghan Government revenue estimates for 2016.
(Intigrity Watch Afhanistan National Corruption Survey , 2016)

The corruption is the biggest problem for the Afghan CSOs after the insecurity, and
itself the corruption contributed to the insecurity problem in Afghanistan. The
corruption is a bipolar phonemana which included corruption practices both from the
Afghan CSOs and Government of Afghanistan.

Currently the CSOs in the provincial level report to the subnational government, to
the Directorate of Economy on quarterly bases both for their financial expense and
project progress they are involved. The directorate in the provincial level oversee the
implementation of the development projects in their concerned provinces. They are
also on the approval position that let NGOs/ CSOs to implement projects and make
sure the donors of the right project implementation. Mr. Hakimi an NGO staff said
during his interview with researcher that Governmental staff are asking them bribe
when they send their reports, or when the initiate any new project the Governmental
staff asks bribe to issue the NGO a letter of approval, the same bribe they ask when
the NGOs are asking a letter for the completion of the project.

The issue of corruption is not only limited to the Government staff and entities, some
of the CSOs and their staff are also involved in the corrupt cases. Mr Hakimi said
during his interview that some of the CSOs especially in the rural area where the
Monitoring is difficult is not transparent in their expenses and reporting, and this is
known by the donors.

The issues of corruption like a chronic social problem affected the quality of services
and functions of the CSOs throughout Afghanistan.
Non-Professional Staff
CSOs especially NGOs recruit technical staff for their project implementation, most
of their projects need technical and professional staff. This is difficult to find
professional staff who is specialized in an area to employ by the CSOs, during 2002-
2013 many foreign experts were working in Afghanistan with CSOs but their cost and
remunerations were difficult to bear by the local CSOs

CSOs are trying to training their staff in doing some certain work that need special
skills for their projects, but the challenges is that cant retain these staff after the
completion of their projects as no longer they will have fund.

Luck of the professional staff is still a problem for CSOs in Afghanistan that affected
the NGOs project a lot and increased the cost of the project implementation.

Warlord / threat when advocating for people specially media organization

Since the Afghanistan is recently started it move toward peace, re-construction and
democratization after 3 decades of the civil war therefore still the warlords are the
most influential people and are using armed forces to influence decision in their
favors.
Interviewees said as challenge for their organizations that usually in out of the Kabul
City in province they are dominant more, and threatens the NGOs staff, ban project
implementation asking do to do something in their favor including asking for money,
share in the project, employ their relatives etc.
In some case when the CSOs are implanting the advocacy projects on human rights
and NGOs are directly involved in doing advocacy the are threatened by the warlords
and who are the convicted and accused with the human right violation specially during
civil war.
Swedish Committee for Afghan (SCA) a local CSO run health projects under Basic
Health Packages services (BPHS) and Essential Health Package Services (EPHS) in
Laghman Province, recently closed 40 of its clinics against public due the repeated
threats they received from the local insurgent.
The statement released on 7th July 2017 from Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
mentioned that in the insurgents in Laghman Province repeatedly threatened the
Swedish Committee Health Staff to leave the area and change the location of the
clinics, where the SCA could not move it due to being stick to the Ministry of Public
Health (MoPH) policy on the local population and geographical coverage. After
mediation of the local elders and community people 20 clinic reopened and still 20
more are closed. SCA convers under its health program in Laghman Province 460000
individuals. (Afghanistan Times Report , 2017)
In an interview with the SCA health project staff in Kabul Management Office of SCA
the staff mentioned that now local people in Laghman Province are in trouble, as the
Governmental Provincial Hospital cant cover the districts and villages throughout the
provinces. People especially women are affected a lot as they are the most vulnerable
group in the rural communities in Afghanistan.
Over all the threats against CSO by the warlords, insurgent and anti-Government
armed groups are a significant problem that sometime result that CSO like SCA close
its project and leave the area.

CSO-Government Weak Relation:

The relation between the CSOs and Afghan Government is improved since 2002, but
still it is in the weak situation in out of Kabul in the subnational level and sometime
in the capital Kabul.
In some cases the Central Government respect the CSO and shared the CSO
representative in important decision making specially the national political decision.
The Afghanistan President listen from the SCOs representatives, and address their
recommendations.
 Afghan President Meeting with the CSOs representatives at Presidential Place on 18th June
2017, during after in the evening.

Presidential Office Website http://president.gov.af/fa/PrGSS

The above photo is from the website of the president office when he has meet
recently with the representatives of the civil society organization in the month of
June and listened to their advices and recommendation for peace, stability and
economic development.

In subnational level the relation of the CSO with the local government is not consistent
in all provinces. In some province the situation is relatively better than others. The
CSOs relation with the province government in West of Afghanistan in Herat, in the
East in Ningarhar, in North in Balkh is relatively better than other province. According
to the interview with the director of an CSO based in Balkh Province Better
Afghanistan Organization for Peace and Human Rights (BAOPHR) mentioned that the
number of the CSO are more in Balkh province and they could always have influence
the local government and could establish and maintain and friendly relation with the
Balkh Governor. The same condition is in Herat and Ningarhar Province where the
number of the CSOs are more and they are dominant in the key large cities.

But the condition in the South and South East are different the local government does
not recognize the CSOs as a bridge between the community and them, and they dont
use to establish their relation with the citizens. Rarely are they recognized as a part
of the democratic process. And mostly the local government made many problems for
the CSOs especially at the time of the project implementation.
Therefore the relation of the CSOs with the government in the capital Kabul, large
cities and other provinces are not consistent, they are different and sometime this
cool relation of CSO government is too problematic for the CSO and public.

Nepotism/and Favoritism
Several interviews with the civil society staff indicates that nepotism and favoritism
is to two challenges that affected the work of CSOs. Since the government does not
have enough control over the CSO this is why the influential people in CSO are
influencing the decision in staff recruitment, and contract with their vendor. In
limited CSOs the conflict of interest policy is available and implemented. Tribal,
Language and religious tendency is influenced staff recruitment, payment, and
contract for services.

In some of the CSO in Afghanistan the staff from the bottom to top are all of the same
tribe, are mostly from the same tribe. Even this issue is dominant in private
companies.
The donor organizations are granting project or accepting the project grant proposal
form their favorite NGOs said Director of BAOPHR during his interview. In addition to
corruption this is the second big problem for the CSO that the donor organizations are
granting their favorite CSOs project. This is not only that these CSOs re meeting the
grant requirements, but it the political, tribal, ethnicity issues are influencing the
decision for granting their projects.

Even the area where the projects implemented and the issue address by the project
are the key factors considered by the donors at the time of grant projects.

Lack of funding
Lack of funding is one of the major challenges for the Afghan CSOs. It is described
above under the Financial Management and Resources Mobilization capacity of CSO
that the Afghan CSO are mostly relayed on the external donation and funding by the
international donors. In 2014 when the international community decided decreasing
financial support to Afghanistan, this affected a lot many project in Afghanistan, and
even closed many NGOs who were relayed on only one donor funding. Below graph
shows that in 2016 the granted amount to the development projects in Afghanistan
decrease by more than 50% of its and the unmet requirement of the CSO are
increased.
CSOs in Afghanistan is relayed on the external fund only. This might be because the
CSO had less attention on generating fund and resource from the internal local
resources. From other side the legal environment for the CSOs were restricted and
they could not generate money from their products. Almost all of their work and
service were welfare and free of cost provided to their beneficiaries.
Zahir Amiri and interviewee from AWEC said during his interview our organization is
for non-profit and according to the current NGO Law we cant make money from the
products and services we are providing to our customers. Mostly our projects were
supported and funded by USAID prime contractors, and now due to the budget cut
which is recently decided by Trump Government most of our project components cut
form our project scope of work.

External Fund Donation to Afghanistan - From Afghan Civil Society Policy Brief Report page -1

Public and CSO relation/ miss trust

Afghanistan democratic communities are still too young and are recently started
exercising democratization. Still the NGOs, CSOs are not a familiar name for them,
they still think its a foreign phenomenon and imposed on them. In rural area the
people are mostly dont trust on NGOs and CSO they are thinking that CSOs are foreign
agents and collecting information for the intelligence purposes. This is why mostly
the staff of CSOs are targeted by the insurgents. But there are communities those
who support the NGOs and facilitated their work and operation in their communities.
They support the NGO projects in their villages with providing the local resource like
local worker, community bye in, land and security.

The available and dominant culture in Afghanistan is obstacle that prevent people to
come together around their local CSOs or trust on the CSO when call for a changes.
Showing stiffness and less flexibility to the change and creative way is the major
obstacle that prevent people to trust on NSOs. But NGO could overcome on these
challenge by studying indebt the community values, and culture and gradually working
with them.

Community people are member of the local traditional established CSO like Shuras
(Community Council) and respect them, but has less trust on the NGOs which is the
modern structure of the CSOs.

Low Capacity (internal management, project management, fundraising,

reporting and fulfilling the donors requirements)

The low internal capacity of the local CSOs are a significant challenge for them. This
is affected their project management, quality service provision, reporting, financial
management, and meeting the some certain standards of organization.
Currently non-of the CSO are the direct project grantee of the USAID, very less number
of the local CSOs are funded by the DFID, and EU who are the key and major donor of
the Afghan CSOs. The purpose is that the local CSOs cant meet their requirements,
including their reporting requirement, and project management.

Still the traditional way of project management, communication, service delivery and
reporting are used in these organizations, and they are lack of the standard policy
and procedures.

There were national program for the civil society strengthening program that
implemented throughout Afghanistan, such as Initiative to Promote Afghan Civil
Society (IPACS), Tawanmandi, and Ambassador Small Grants for Gender Equity
Program (ASGP), and had different package of capacity building for CSOs, this was a
great program for some potential organizations and they could grew themselves,
develop systems, policy procedures and developed their staff skills. But such things
are needed continuously for the Afghan CSOs, this why the civil society institute
established and lunched to push CSOs keep the standards, and meet the standards in
their organizations.

Weak relation with the private sector (for financial sustainability)

As its mentioned above the lack of resource for the CSOs is a challenge for them,
among the local resource the local private sector entities are the major source of
funding. The CSOs can initiate joined projects and generate income to support its
operation and projects.
Developing relation with private sector can be a very good source of the resource and
even can be more sustainable than the current donor resources. But unfortunately
the current relation between the private sector and the CSOs are not strong enough,
and there are less interaction between these two sectors.
 Chapter V
Recommendations:

On the basis of the above findings of this study makes the below recommendations.
Since this study is done beyond the SCA and its partners organizations, and covers
more civil society players in Afghanistan, therefore the recommendations are to all
stakeholders of the civil society as well. But there are a few specific recommendations
to SCA.

For Civil Society Organizations:

1. The current capacity of the civil society organizations has to be improved, since
still the civil society organization are new and too young therefore needs to
develop its internal capacity and every specifically in project management,
reporting , financial management , advocacy and policy influencing. The study
recommends that there has to be a learning exposure program for the smaller
organizations to lean from the strong organizations. CCD, ACBAR, AWN and
AWEC are the stronger organizations and can be used as learning domain for
other smaller CSOs. The stranger organizations who are the sector leaders like
CCD ,AWEC , AWN and ACBAR has facilitate the learning program for the smaller
organization as part of the their long term plans.
2. The civil society organizations have to diversify their funding source. The
finding above shows that the most of the civil society organizations fund comes
only from the international donors which is not sustainable and is conditional
to the donor interest when spending by the CSOs therefore this study suggest
the local CSOs to diversify their funding sources beyond the international
donors. The researcher suggests the CSO to have partnership with the private
sector and initiate income generating projects to make money according the
Afghan NGO Law.
3. The current interaction between the civil society organization and Government
suggest to be improved, especially this relation is worst in the subnational level
that needs to be much improved. In some provinces the subnational
government event dont know the role of the civil society. The civil society
organizations should take proactive role and make themselves known to the
 governmental entities, and developing and cooperation relation with them.
They have to make/lunch program to increase the understanding of the local
government staff to know better know the role of the civil society organizations
are bridge between government and citizen and use it.
4. The study suggest that relation of the CSOs to be improved with the public in
subnational level and in the rural area, currently people in rural area has less
trust on the CSOs, and are less uses CSOs as a mean to reach to the decision
makers, therefore the CSO has to organize events, and awareness raising
programs to increase the understanding of the public in rural areas on the role
of civil society. The best approach can be used are media massage where its
used, and the face to face meetings in the social gatherings.
5. The study suggest CSO to develop regionally and sectorial networks, so that
become a strong body at the time of advocacy and can work on the common
interest and goals effectively. This can give the weak CSOs a chance to learn
from the stronger CSOs.
6. CSO to develop stronger and sustainable relation with the private sector,
current poor relation of the CSO with private cant sustain the existence of the
CSOs and its effective working. The private sector can synergize the role of
CSOs in their target communities.
7. The study suggest that CSO should have focus on one or two area, and this is a
corroding to the NGO Law. Currently CSO are implementing different projects
of different areas, and do not have specialization in any of the area. The CSOs
are suggested to be specialized in at least one area. This has to be according
to the set vision and mission of the organization.

To the Government:
8. The Government has to strengthen its oversight role on the CSOs especially in
out of Kabul, and rural area. This can decrease the corrupt practices both in
the CSO and local governmental entities level. The Governmental oversight can
enhance the effective service delivery of the CSOs in their target areas.
9. The Government has to foster more enabling environment for the CSOs,
especially for the CSOs in the rural area. The CSO in the rural areas are
deprived from access to information and donors, therefor they have less
funding and less growth opportunities. There has to be means and tools that
rural area CSO reach out to the donors and can benefit from their supports such
as funding their projects.
To the Donors:
10. This study suggest the Afghanistan international donors who are funding the
CSOs project to set their funding priorities according and align it with the
Afghan community priorities.
11. The Afghanistan donors are also recommended to fund the Afghan CSO long
term programs rather than short projects. The short project cant bring the
expected changes in the life of the target people. In order to reach to the
expected out-come long term funding commitment is needed.
12. The international donor are recommended to lower reporting and funding
requirement especially for the CSOs located in the Afghanistan rural area. Since
their capacity is too low and the need easy condition for making grant
applications. This issue is also recommended for SCA.

To Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA)

13. The SCA to continue address the needs of the CSO organization located and
based in the rural communities, especially those are not address by the other
civil society strengthening programs.
14. Continue Capacity development program for the CSO organization along with
the Capacity development grant, so that CSO learn and experience how to
develop and implement project ( learning by doing approach)
15. Lunch capacity development programs for its target CSOs on the fund raising
and resource mobilization so that to make them sustainable.
16. Initiate different capacity development program for its target CSOs and do not
just relay on the class training and workshop, exchange visit, budding, joined
project implementation are recommended to be used for further capacity
development of the target CSOs.
17. SCA in coordination with AICS has to develop a standard package of
certification for the small rural based CSOs. Currently the AICS only certifies
the large well established NGOs and there is no any certification program for
the community based smaller CSOs.
Conclusion:

Afghanistan Civil Society Organizations has had a remarkable growth since fall of
Taliban Region and establishment of new democratic government. The number of civil
society organizations increased, the civil engagement in different sector of health,
education, agriculture, infrastructure development, human right advocacy, and
independent media increase. The role of civil society organizations in the community
became known, people are using the Civil Society to reach to the decision makers,
and civil society coordination and cooperation with government in service delivery,
complemented the role of government when needed.
The relation of civil society organizations with the government is getting better but
still need a lot of work to do specially in subnational level, and a close cooperation
and coordination of subnational government and CSOs is a challenge.
The enabling environment for civil society is still another challenge in Afghanistan as
the resources, are decreasing. The security condition are deteriorated and CSOs are
closing their offices from the insecure provinces. CSO staff are threatened, abducted
and in some cases killed. Therefore insecurity is known as a major challenge a head
of the Afghan CSOs.
Civil society organization are experiencing still its young age, and needs to gain more
experience and specialization in specific sectors, and this an ensure their
sustainability and attract trust of Government, Community People and International
donors.
The international community donation to the Afghan CSOs were the only sources that
CSOs were relaying on, but now it is significantly decreased which disrupted the work
of CSO and event resulted collapse of some CSOs. The recommendation part of this
study revealed and suggested solid recommendation on how to find sustainable
financial sources so that CSOs can keep their performance sustainable.
Civil Society growth in Afghanistan depends on civil society organization creativity,
innovation and government support specially for enabling environment, therefor very
specific recommendations are provided above for Civil Society Organizations and
Government to follow for the sound growth of civil society organizations in
Afghanistan.
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