Nepal should benefit from Afghanistan's membership in South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation ( SAARC)

 After a 12 year gap, the 18th SAARC Summit is being held in Kathmandu on 26-27 November 2014. With less than a week to go, we present a timeline of major events and achievements of past SAARC summits. Among the SAARC member state the Afghanistan is youngest nation. This SAARC summits is going to be held in Nepal. Nepal and Afghanistan can benefit from their partnership in this regional network.

Being a development aid worker and working in Afghanistan more than half decade I found there are key areas where both countries can mutually benefit. I am suggesting to my government HE. Premier, Sushil Koirala should take initiation to take lead role to talk in during HE. President, Aasharf Ghani’s during his visit in Kathmandu Nepal.

Both countries needs to create enabling environment for diplomatic relationship, it requires to have formal office set up. Both countries need to require at least consular offices both in Kabul and Kathmandu in near future it can be opened as embassy. These consular offices will be helpful to have bi-lateral relationship. Now Nepalese Embassy of Islamabad is looking to Kabul, but being an SAARC member nation it requires to have formal full time office in Kabul. These offices will be helpful to take care more than 10000 Nepalese in Afghanistan. In Kabul there is significant number of professionals and security people working in the Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan has one of the vibrant young populations in South Asia, who are having great expectations to go for abroad study. In Nepal there are plenty of government and private sectors colleges and universities who can provide high level standard education to the Afghan youths. In the same way, big number of populations of Afghanistan is going to India and Pakistan for medical facilities. Nepal can attract those populations for medical tourism.

Nepal can get high benefit from increasing number of tourists of Afghanistan. Rich Afghans are incredible to spend their money for their entertainment. Natural beauty of Nepal can easily attract to them. To promote tourism it required to make more flexibility for the issuing visa for Afghan citizens. Nepal is still enlisted to the Afghans in non-arrival state status in terms issuing visa. This requires immediate remove and treat to them equally as a other SAARC nations. The both civil aviation needs to have formal memorandum of understanding to operate air flights Kabul to Kathmandu vice vs. These air flights will be enable much better relationship among the two nations.

The Afghanistan is one of the historical country where “Silk Route” is famous for their trade and business. This “Silk Route” which is link up to Nepal and Tibet. The historical tie up trade between two countries needs to revive and promote trade and business at the private sectors level. The ‘peoples to people’ and ‘government to government’ will relationship will enhance better partnership and strengthen relationship among these two countries. 

Mr. KC is working in Afghanistan since last 5 years in various capacities at the government/UNDP and an INGO as a development practicener. He is reachable on; nahakulkc@gmail.com

Increasing Accountability of government through Citizen Reporting Card

Increasing Accountability of Government through Citizen Reporting Card:

What is a Citizen Report Card?

The Citizen Report Card (CRC) is a tool to assess the performance of service providers, in this case health service providers, by comparing performance across service providing organizations and generating a database of feedback on services provided to the public. This study found conducted found that the CRC process has built a bridge between health service providers and the communities they serve by gathering and publicly presenting citizens’ opinions of health care services in selected districts of Badakhshan province. The Citizen Report Card (CRC) is a tool to;

• Collect citizen feedback on public services from actual users of a service (and not opinions from the general public)
• Assess the performance of individual service providers and/or compare performance across service providers and
• Generate a database of feedback on services that is placed in the public domain.

Most governments are responsible for providing essential services to the people. Governments spend huge amounts of resources to provide following services:

•       drinking water

•       education

•       health care and

•       transportation

In some instances, governments give contracts to private entities to provide services. Some central and state governments have also decentralized service provision to local units of government.

Citizen Reporting Card is a simple and participatory process whereby citizens are empowering to assess  quality and effective of public services provided by government.

What issues will a Citizen Report Card address?

The CRC addresses critical themes in the delivery of public services such as access to services, quality and reliability of services, problems encountered by users of services and responsiveness of service providers in addressing these problems, transparency in service provisions like disclosure of service quality standards and norms, and costs incurred in using a service including hidden costs such as bribes. The CRC also provides a supportive score that captures the totality of critical service-related parameters.

What kind of institutional capacity would need to conduct a Citizen Report Card?

CRCs work best when there is an explicit recognition within an organization on the need to conduct a user feedback led diagnostic or assessment exercise. Some critical institutional capacities required to make CRCs effective are:

• Analytical staff well-versed in quantitative methods. Since a large part of the CRC
• involves sample surveys and analysis of data, a major pre-requisite is that the organization should have either in-house capabilities to understand and interpret numbers or have resources to locate external support.
• Dedicated resource to anchor and manage the CRC processes.
• Dedicated resources for communication and outreach.
• Support from the senior management

Methods

The tools of the study were jointly developed with the provincial health department of Badakhshan. During the first stage, district health centers were selected as primary sampling units by considering geographical locations and accessibility. In the second stage, approximately community 560 respondents were selected randomly. Their opinions on quality of service, satisfaction rate and main areas of improvement for health services available to them were recorded. The study was conducted by staff of Aga Khan Foundation and members of District Development Assemblies (DDAs). Selection of respondents have taken placed randomly, the interviewer waited near to the center of Clinic while patients  were examining by doctor and taking prescribed medicines from the clinic then he/she selects  two male and tow female out of 15 up to 20 patients and asking respective questions which were already determined by interviewer. Badakshan colleagues to take an action of this training at least let us start from one District Level Hospital in the region.

Results:

Based on a variety of questions that were aimed at finding out the primary reasons for visiting health centers, what kind of services were available to citizens, and the quality of services received, some of the key results were highlighted.  Results demonstrated that 67% of respondents visited their respective health care centre with the primarily to obtain medicine free of charge. A small number of visitors (11%) noted that they were able to access information about health services available at centers on information boards or displays at centers.  A majority of service users (78%) reported that their registration was completed within two hours. Most of the respondents (92%) visited doctors within an hour or less after completing registration process. However, a significant number of respondents (41%) also reported that the center's laboratory equipment were not functional.

 Approximately, 65% respondents said that the health services were had improved in comparison to the previous year. They also reported satisfaction rates on different services. The proportion of the respondents who were very satisfied or satisfied with the registration process and the health centers’ staff’s attitudes are 66% and 53%. A significant percentage of respondents reported being dissatisfied with the laboratory facilities (43%) and treatment facilities (30%) of the centers.

Conclusion

This CRC tool was introduced by AKF Afghanistan for the first time in the country primarily to create transparency, engender citizen sense of engagement in the service delivery process, and enable the health system of the government to be more accountable towards their respective citizens. In doing so, the CRC aims to improve the quality of service delivery by engendering a supply-demand relationship between government and citizens for public services.  The majority of patients reported positive experiences and overall improvement of health facilities in comparison to the previous year but felt the level of services at present did not satisfy them properly providing a crucial baseline assessment of public opinion on health service delivery in Badakhshan province.

YOUTHS ARE KEY INSTRUMENTS FOR STABILIZATION THE NATION; “A SUCCESS CASE STUDY OF BAMYAN YOUTH RESOURCE AND INFORMATION CENTER”

Background:

In Afghanistan 68 percent of the population is below 25 years of age. A significant portion of this falls in the category of youth (i.e. between 15 and 24 years), who have experienced long spells of conflict and exile. This is a particularly vulnerable lot, at a major crossroads today, seeking direction and bearing. 

On one hand, the youth population of Afghanistan must be empowered and provided with alternatives and opportunities to ensure they do not grapple with unemployment, low wages, and other kinds of oppression. On the other hand their fresh perspectives, their energy, enthusiasm and fortitude need to be channelized for promoting peace and development in Afghanistan. This enormous reservoir of human capital must therefore be trained to become good citizens, to be able to provide effective leadership in the country’s political, business and civic arena, in the near future.  Meaningful civic engagement of the youth will be an important outcome to evaluate their positive development.

Objectives:

        i.            Provide essential life-skill training and exposure through interactive platforms to improve knowledge, awareness, attitude and efficiency among youth.

      ii.            Equip youth with the knowledge and skills around IT to improve accessibility and adoption of new technologies.

    iii.            Promote and disseminate civic education among youth to enhance their  civic engagement in order to make responsible citizenship, fully aware about their rights and entitlements.

     iv.            Encourage sports and cultural activities to engage youth in a healthy, wholesome participation of life.

       v.  Support campaigns around public good for improving and extending community development services through youth.

Major Activities:

aThe following major activities are carried out by this resource center;

a.      Select communities and provide essential life-skill training around communication, attitude and leadership building

b.      Create periodic interactive, exposure-enhancing platforms by organising workshops and seminars to encourage exchange of ideas.

c.       Provide computers and internet access and improve computer knowledge as well as awareness around social media.

d.      Provide civic education and build critical knowledge around rights and responsibilities of effective citizens.

e.      Execute awareness campaigns and rallies around targeted issues.

f.        Provide youth counselling, both personal and career related.

g.      Promote cultural and sports activities through special and periodic events.

Area of services:

The major areas of services provided by the “Youth Resource and Information Center” is

A. Computer lab, net and printing facilities

                                  i.            Social Media access

                                ii.            ICT Training and practice

                              iii.            Printing, photocopying and  scanning

B. Meeting/Training Hall:

                                  i.          Conference facilities including a projector and screen

                                ii.          Notice/Information boards

                              iii.          Stationary support

C. Library:

a.      Books sorted according to themes, and adequate youth employment related information

b. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials including posters, magazines, pamphlets, audio tapes, documentaries for youth and various youth organizations in Bamyan.

D. Sports tournament and cultural activities

a.      Conducting provincial level sports tournament

b.      Organizing youth festival

c.       Organizing cultural debates  and competition

Expected Outcomes 

        i.            Healthy exchange of ideas and constructive debates raised through exposure to social media and other exchange programs

      ii.         Increased awareness and understanding of social issues and preservation of cultural heritage.

    iii.            Increased awareness amongst youth activist groups on political and social issues.

     iv.            Increased participation of youth in the development and political processes.

       v.            Increased levels of mental and physical fitness.

    vi.            Enhanced skills and improved employ ability opportunities.

Bamyan Youth and Resource Information Centre

Provincial Deputy Governor Mohamad Aablhia Mobakhil, Director of Youth and Culture Zakhil Aahmad and AKF Bamayna team including Nahakul K.C., cutting the ribbon to formally inaugurate the Youth Centre in Bamyan

Sahayogi Hat Paropakar Karayakraram (Helping hand Social Service Charity (HSSC)

Establishment: 13^th September 2012

Introduction:

On the occasion of 42^nd birthday on 13^th September 2012, I would like to declare a trust fund- Helping hand Social Service Charity (HSSC) Nepal.  The trust fund will establish with fixed term deposit of one hundred thousand rupees (100000). The interest amount Rs 12000 from the deposited fund will be counted as income. The annual income-Rs 12000 will be provided to conflict/war and cerebral palsy. In medical term, cerebral palsy is paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth.  Initially, this fund will be used to support two children each year. To extend the support to the needy people of Rapti Zone, Mid-west, and the fund will be raised with charity.

From the last 15 years, I have been working for development sector.  In my professional life, I have affiliated with various international organizations. I am familiar with system of UN DFID, SNV among other national and International organizations.  Feeling myself confident to contribute in society with efficiency and collective effort from the existing donor agencies and programme projects.   I realize I should initiate some social welfare work to contribute for my own society. I would like to ensure that this is fully my charity work and will not spend any single penny for political cause. It will also not use in influence of any individual. The fund will go for real victim and needy people as said above.

This trust fund establishment is personal initiative.   It will not complete without collaborative effort from other colleagues. So that, I would like to appeal to my friends, relatives, business people, teacher, students and professionals who would like to contribute in this welfare work. Your small contributions will help a lot to do the individual children and society.

Objectives of Charity:

-          To support conflict/war and cerebral palsy (Paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth) affected children’s

-          To extend support to rural areas Community Schools and Health Centres

-          To increase sponsorship by  Nepali’s to Nepalese for charity (Paropakar) welfare for social welfare activities

Management Responsibilities:

As per my plan in the beginning this fund will be managed jointly by me (Nahakul K.C.) and Sewa Foundation Nepal (Tulsipur Dang based civil society organization). Sewa Foundation agreed to take all management responsibilities as voluntary basis. This charity will not spend any single penny for operation and management cost.

Transparency:

I would like to ensure to all of  who would support for this charity  fund will be spend in transparent manner and  contributions will be posted in website and public notice board. And individual sponsor will receive of individual children’s progress and cost of expenses.

Selection Criteria’s for Children:

Options A:

-          Children’s must be Maoist Insurgency (war) affected children or any civil war affected

-          All children will be form Midwest Nepal

Options B:

-          Cerebral palsy (Paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth) affected children’s

-          Disable children’s

Options C:

-          School building support where all schools buildings are Thatch houses and not receiving any kind of government support

-          Community Health Centres where women and children’s can get health facilities

Ways of Support:

Your small contributions and donations will support to the children. Your support will be highly appreciated. You can send your contributions in following bank account details;

A/C Name:  Nahakul K.C. A/C No: 0110017550 2257. Swift Code: NARBNPKA. Bank Address: NABIL Bank, Kantipath, Kathmandu, Nepal

 Contact Details:

Sahayogi Hat Paropakar Karayakraram Nepal (Helping Hand Charity-Nepal)

C% Sewa Foundation Nepal, Tulsipur Dang Nepal

Phone: 00977 9857820633

Email: nahakulkc@gmail.com

Face book:                   https://www.facebook.com/sewafoundation

                                    https://www.facebook.com/nahakul

Photos of my recent visit of Bamyan mission

Providing technical advice to District Information Center of Yaklawan DDA

Photo near Bamyan center

Teaching to Kabul University students about Community based planning system  of Afg

An Afghan village in Satu mountain area of Punjab district

An Afghan village in Satu mountain area of Punjab district, background is very  beautiful site scene

Gift of God Destroyed by Human

Gift of God Destroyed by Human

Nahakul K.C.[1]

I visited to Bamyan for my official mission on 3^rd week of July 2012. The objectives of the mission were to observe and monitor ongoing programme activities which is implementing by National Area based Development Programme (NABDP). In this article aim is to share my personnel observation about one of the very historical place; shape of deity Budhha’s in Bamyan centre and naturally beautiful places Bande E Aamir Lake and Satu Mountains of Yaklawang and Punjab districts of Bamyan.

Before arrival to Afghanistan, Bamyan and Kandahar were my dream place to visit. I was so fascinating to know about brave Pathan “Pashtu’s” in Kandahar. Kashmiri Pakistani hijackers were hijacked an Air Bus of Air India from Kathmandu and brought to Kandahar. Due to these reasons I was keen to visit in these two places respectively. I was so interested to see the breaker of an idol or image of Buddha’s was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Buddha was born and grown up in Nepal and letter on when he had knowledge and wisdom he moved to India and letter on his ideology was spread out in all over the world. I was so eager to see myself Monuments of Buddhhas, nearby caves where more than 5000 Monks were used to stay. It can be counted as “Valley of God”.

The Monumental Buddha statues of Bamyan were until their destruction, one of the best known historic and cultural sights of Afghanistan carved from the cliff in the early 6^th and 7^th centuries AD, the date to an era when Buddhism was an dominant religion in the region and when Bamyan was in important centre of trade route between China, Europe and India and Central Asia. The Astern Buddha (38 mit. high) was craved first, in the middle of the 6^th century and the western Buddha (55 mit. high) in the early 7^th century. The statuses were once brightly decorated. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuan Zang, who visited Bamyan in about AD 630, recorded the first description of the Buddhas. He wrote that the large Buddha’s “golden hues sparkle on every side and its precious ornaments dazzle the eyes by their brightness.” The hundreds of hereby caves were used by monks and were once decorated with elaborated wall paintings. The Buddha’s were destroyed by the Taleban authority in 2001. (UNESCO)

In reality dismantle of Buddha’s monument was started from earlier Islamic kings. As per local residents it was and historical photos shows giant Buddha was leg and partial part of the face destroyed in 18^th century. The Taliban claimed that the local Hazara community are not Islam. They claimed these monuments looks like Hazara and destroyed in March 2001.

I observed along with my office colleagues and climb up to second largest Buddha. Now there are all empty monuments but it is pretty clear shape. I observed amazing architect and designing of those caves in such places like Bamyan. It was a civilization which shows great historical link up with Alexander and Genghis Khan, who were used to travel through this trade silk route. There is strong belief that, there is 300 mitre sleeping Buddha’s monuments is lying down. Dr. Tarzi renounced archaeologist start to renovate and explore sleeping monument. I hope this will be found out in near future. Right now this renovations works is stopped. More than three decades war of the Afghanistan, it destroyed fascinating history and culture of the country.

I observed virgin lake called Band E Aamir, which I did not know before coming to Afghanistan. This is located around 120 KM west of Bamyan centre and having good connectivity to reach to lake. The Islamic Republic of Government of Afghanistan in year 2009 declared first National Park. It was glad to know that this park was technically supported by Nepali forester Mr. Uday Raj Sharma. There are beautiful seven lakes, which are located north to west. The natural spring water makes everyone to fulfil their thrust. Government is providing basic facilities for boating in the lake site. The blue and crystal clear water you can see up to deep of the lake. It’s “God Gifted” places. Local communities are managing motel and resorts with basic facilities. If you are beginners of writing your poems or novel, you will please to think or write something. There is beautiful and wonder palace called ‘Dragon valley’ where you can observe about the sulphur water is coming from the cave of stones in the small peak of mountains. Local people have beliefs that, it came from the mouth of Dragon. There could be study site for zoologist students. When I visited these three places, I feel the Bamyan is “Gift of God destroyed by Human”.

I visited rural site of the province Yakalawang, Punjab and Waras districts. There is huge pasture land and thin and scattered settlement which is hard to provide basic facilities to the rural people. It seems some hope is reaching to their villages. Now schools are opening, girls and boys are going to school. Pave roads are operating Dubai and Pakistani sold second hand vehicles. MRRD is supporting to culverts, bridges, drinking water supply and more importantly micro hydro power projects. In Bamyan there is very encouraging active participation of women were observed in the local institutions like; District Development Assemblies (DDAs) and Community Development Councils (CDCs).

Bamyan is one of the highest potential for domestic and international tourism. The proposed national highway may open more opportunities to the local people for promotion tourism and development but main question is Peace and stability. Peace which Buddha advocates in his whole life and his millions of followers are following nowadays as well, it required to Afghan people as well. Only Peaceful Afghanistan can move for further betterment of its citizens.

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[1] .  Nahakul KC is development worker, and working for Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development  (MRRD/UNDP) of Afghanistan since November 2009 and this article is written based on his personnel observation of Bamyan visit from 17^th to 22^nd July 2012.

DDAs’ Development Role at Sub-national Governance Level in Afghanistan

DDAs’ Development Role at Sub-national Governance Level in Afghanistan:
Nahakul K.C.
Background
National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP) commenced as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2002.NABDP contributes towards an enabling environment in rural areas to provide equitable development and good governance through community empowerment at the district level.

District Development Assemblies (DDAs) are district level Shuras, which are democratically elected, represented by Community Development Councils (CDCs), which are mainly focused on planning, implementation and monitoring of rural development activities as local governance institutions at the district level, these local development institutions play an important role to minimize gap between the communities and provinces.

Moreover, the DDA is envisaged to play a crucial role in establishing linkages vertically with provincial authorities and horizontally with various line departments of GoA, private sectors and NGOs to promote local governance, assisting the government for stabilization of peace, thereby offering a multiplier effect of donor funding. In this nexus, it is very much important to analyse both the advantages and limitations of DDAs and the proposed alternative District Councils and to identify areas of collaboration and needs to advocate about the positive parts of the DDA and District Councils which could ultimately result in merger as a single entity

Institutional mechanism
The programme has its major strategies decentralized to the provinces. One of the first successful models was ‘Kandahar Model’, with more physical, financial and administrative decentralization to the provinces. Decentralization of operations to the identified provinces will increase the efficiency significantly. Keeping the geo-political conditions and local context in the scenario, MRRD’s NABDP acknowledges the need for national presence. A package of integrated and inter-linked projects will be delivered to communities identified by the resource allocation criteria that comprise level of poverty, investment per capita, and local physical and institutional potential. With this, NABDP will significantly grow in size. This warrants that a robust accountability and transparency system is in place for both operations and programme management of NABDP.
The MRRD encourages the DDAs to share major progress, best practices and areas of collaborations among the various stakeholders and share their major constraints and challenges in the provincial Conferences. NABDP also encourages other stakeholders to work through the DDAs as the development gate way in the district level.

Moreover, the provincial resource mobilization conferences are proposed to conduct for providing detailed information about the opportunities to work with local development institutions and create conducive working environment at the district and community level through the DDAs and CDCs for the fulfilment of above objectives. The provincial resource mobilization Conferences will be conducted from October to mid December 2011 in the provincial headquarters.

Recent major achievements
NABDP established 388 DDAs out of 402 DDAs across the country. The 388 District Development Plans (DDP) were formulated. Out of the 388 DDAs which already completed three years, re-elections were carried out in 158 DDAs. The capacity development modules (training) were provided to the 290 DDAs. The modules on the training were 1- Good Governance, Conflict resolution and gender equity, 2- project planning, implementation and project management, 3- Procurement and financial management and 4- Disaster Management and Mitigation. The LIDD/NABDP has established 63 District Information Centres and 215 DDAs are receiving grant in aid. Additionally, project monitoring and special training was provided to 13 insecure provinces where DDA members are directly involved in the project monitoring process.
The programme has 96% coverage of Afghanistan where 11460 DDA members directly support the rural development and local governance process. Furthermore, 2,366 DDA members have been trained in different project management modules like local governance, gender, conflict resolutions, procurement & finance, project management & disaster management. These members are contributing in peace and stabilization process and completion of projects. 80% projects are getting implemented through communities with a tripartite agreement between DDA, CDCs, and MRRD. This agreement helped increase the employment, where 2,330,616 beneficiaries of 4,290 families of 461 villages are connected with 27 road projects with access to safe drinking water. In addition, 278 Jeribs of land is irrigated by the updated and newly completed irrigation projects and 13,438 Jeribs of land is protected from the natural disaster by supporting and construction of river control and retaining walls. Likewise, 181 KW of electricity is generated and 10,368 households are electrified from rural energy programme. Similarly, Biogas projects have provided 1,057 households with alternative cooking fuel. Additionally, many female DDA members are part of the Provincial Development Committee and two DDA male members were elected for the parliament.
Challenges and opportunities
Legitimacy of District Development Assemblies (DDAs) has been a key challenge. Without having a legal status, there is an issue of sustainability. Without a legal and legitimate status the donors, government institutions and civil society will hesitate to enter in any deal with the DDAs.
The District Development Plans are prepared and formulated by the DDA members based on their needs. These community plans needs should be reflected at the district level and reflected in Provincial Development Plans and National Plan of the GoIRA. In addition, various emerging Shuras at the district Level formed by other line ministries like, IDLG- USAID, DFID’s Community Councils (CCs) are being paid monthly salary, while the DDA members work voluntarily. The role of DDAs vs. CCs members and their overlapping roles are creating great challenges to the DDAs.
DDAs have been the exclusive responsibility of the MRRD; it must now implement its programmes and channelize its resources in the districts through DDAs. This helps to build DDAs’ capacity in development administration and will help transform them into institutions. Competent human Resource to manage these institutions at the district level is another great challenge. It requires additional commitment and capable human resource support for project implementation, institutionalization and capacity building support to individual DDAs.
Conclusions
DDAs have better opportunities to play an important role in development and governance at the district level. These local institutions are well capacitated for the project management, procurement and finance and monitoring process. These institutions have better coordination with district/provincial governor office and working relationship with Provincial Development Committees. These local institutions are carrying multi ministerial activities at the district level for the providing effective service delivery to the local communities. These institutions are effectively mobilizing internal and external physical and financial resources for the better management, implementation and monitoring the projects. Thus DDA should be converted as a District Council at the district level which can be most appropriate institution to provide effective service delivery in the better governance at the sub national level.