Local municipal officials in ten Afghan jurisdictions are now equipped with the knowledge they need to comply with provisions of a newly enforced public procurement law.

Working under the Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), ICMA facilitated a five-day training session in August for 29 officials from Khost, Tirin Kot, Sharana, Gardez, Jalalabad, Charikar, Bazarak, Ghazni, Kandahar, and Kunar province.

The training was conducted as part of USAID's program to strengthen local communities and improve provincial governments in Afghanistan. The main objective of the training was to build the capacity of municipal staff in the area of public procurement and Afghan procurement law at the provincial level. Although municipal officials are bound by the law, they had received no training.

The training, conducted by national and international procurement specialists, covered the fundamentals of public procurement; the scope and application of procurement law; standard documentation; procurement planning; eligibility and qualification of bidders; procurement methods, proceedings, and conditions for implementation; securities; contract administration; transparency and accountability; and procurement entities.

In addition to the training sessions, the participants had opportunities to exchange views and discuss local issues, allowing them to get to know each other professionally and build relationships that will lead to future coordination among their municipalities.

"On behalf of all my colleagues [participants], I appreciate this valuable effort of USAID-AMSP in conducting such important training on Afghanistan procurement law," remarked Abdul Wahid Achakzai, Tirin Kot deputy mayor. "I believe that this kind of training will continue, if possible, at the provincial level, to strengthen the capacity of our municipal staff in the future."

AMSP is a 42-month cooperative agreement funded by USAID in cooperation with the Afghanistan government. In its first year the program focused on physical infrastructure projects in six municipalities, and in the second year it has sought to develop the capacity of provincial local officials. A key goal of the program is to support local Afghan governance in order to increase public confidence in municipal leaders in key cities and increase stability and security at the local level.

ICMA's work to improve municipal services in the capital city of Kabul and in provincial capitals throughout Afghanistan is described on the ICMA Web site.