ICMA will be a significant player on a team that has been awarded up to $150 million by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to undertake a major new local government capacity-building project over three years in 14 provincial capitals in the Eastern region of Afghanistan. This new program builds on ICMA’s successful implementation of local government programs in the country starting in 2004. The award is made for one year at a time with two performance-based option years. 

The Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations, popularly known as RAMP UP, supports the U.S. government’s stated objective to promote a more capable, accountable, and effective government in Afghanistan that serves the Afghan people and can eventually function with limited international support. It seeks to support the Afghanistan government in efforts to: 

• Increase the capacity of local-level officials, managers, and staff to perform  their core responsibilities effectively
• Improve municipal service delivery in ways that are responsive to citizens and enhance citizens’ perception of municipal governance
• Increase revenue at the local level, particularly by fostering and sustaining economic growth.

To achieve these three objectives, the RAMP UP team will 

• Establish baselines against which each objective can be measured, using functional audits, citizen surveys, and other data-gathering methods
• Deliver training in core skills and build Afghan training capacity
• Design plans for improvement in service delivery, management systems, and economic development potential
• Implement projects, including new and refurbished infrastructure and facilities, improved service delivery operations, and citizen outreach and service initiatives, using a “learning by doing” approach.

The program includes projects intended specifically to provide economic and social opportunities for women in culturally appropriate ways (parks, markets, cafes), and projects to engage youth (sports programs, skills development). Two additional cross-cutting themes are anti-corruption and conflict mitigation.

Partners in the program, headed by DAI as the prime contractor, are ICMA, Development & Training Services, Inc., the National Research Center (NRC), the Urban Management Centre (UMC), URS, and Appleton Consulting.  ICMA has existing relationships with the National Research Center, which conducts the National Citizen Survey, and UMC, based in Ahmedabad, India, which represents ICMA in South Asia.

One of the underlying principles of RAMP UP is that it is to be “owned” by the Afghan participants. For example, the deputy chief of party for RAMP UP is Ziauddin Zia, an Afghan national who has served as chief of party for ICMA’s Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP). Most of the program’s employees are local hires, and the plan is to engage a significant number of local Afghan firms in the implementation process.

The implementation methodology, adopted from the AMSP project, is to embed a team of Afghan staff in each municipality to assist the mayor and municipal staff to build capacity and carry out numerous planned municipal improvement activities through a “learning by doing” approach to implementation.

RAMP UP also will work in partnership with Afghanistan’s Independent Directorate for Local Governance, which is responsible for facilitating local governance in the country; the Ministry of Urban Development and other ministries, the Civil Service Commission, and the mayors and other officials in the 14 municipalities.

The provincial capitals in the RAMP UP East program are Bamyan (Bamyan province), Maidan Shar (Wardak), Pul-e-Alam (Logar), Ghazni (Ghazni), Gardiz (Paktia), Khost (Khost), Sharana (Paktika), Charikar (Parwan), Bazarak (Panjshir), Mahmud-i-Raqi (Kapisa), Jalalabad (Nangarhar), Mehtarlam (Laghman), Asadabad (Kunar), and Parun (Nuristan).

The cities have an estimated total population of about 7,685,200, and ICMA has experience working in eight of them. While the Afghanistan government does not have official administrative regions, this group of 14 provinces represents the Regional Command East of the International Security Assistance Force.

“The RAMP UP award provides an opportunity for ICMA to continue and enhance the innovative programs we have facilitated in the cities that participated in our earlier projects and to bring this experience to additional cities in the Eastern region,” said David Grossman, director of ICMA International Programs. “The challenges we face are great, but the opportunities to achieve significant results are exciting.”

ICMA became involved in Afghanistan in 2004, starting with a three-year USAID-funded pilot program that sought to strengthen the capacity of Kabul, the national capital, to provide essential services that had deteriorated during a long period of conflict and neglect. ICMA designed and implemented improvements in infrastructure and solid waste management, including trash collection, drainage ditch clearing, neighborhood “greening,” park development, and street maintenance. These were small changes that provided local jobs, trained municipal staff, and had an immediate impact on the quality of life for citizens.

Based on the success of that program, USAID granted ICMA a cooperative agreement in May 2007 for the Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP), which is winding down as RAMP UP begins. Employing a “learning by doing” approach, AMSP formed teams in 11 provincial capitals, providing technical assistance and training to municipal staff and laborers.

Like the Kabul program, AMSP has sought to develop local capacity to complete small-scale projects that improve living conditions, create employment opportunities, increase municipal revenue, and strengthen citizen confidence in local government. Its activities and accomplishments include:

• Renovation of municipal offices and buildings; improvement of roads, parks, water systems, and solid waste collection and management systems; and construction of ditches and culverts, public parking lots, markets, and other revenue-generating facilities
• Sports activities and intern opportunities to encourage young people to engage with their communities and channel their energies in productive directions
• Municipal staff development training in public administration, English language, and computer skills
• Development of a Municipal Governance in Afghanistan handbook and a Municipal Management Manual to be used as a reference for managers and for trainers
• GIS mapping of each municipality and the development of citizen-driven strategic municipal action plans.

In 2008, USAID provided additional funding to expand AMSP and also awarded ICMA the Commercialization of Afghanistan Water & Sanitation Activity (CAWSA) program. Working with water utilities in four cities, the CAWSA team has implemented management improvements and service delivery innovations, human resource management systems, complaint handling systems, customer service hotlines, public awareness campaigns, and “customer care” centers.

These improvements are helping provincial water utilities in four (soon to be five) locations improve fee collections, improve service output to their customers and prepare for eventual privatization by improving operating efficiency and financial management.

To learn more, visit the Afghanistan section of the ICMA website, or contact international@icma.org.