Publication: A Guide to Government in Afghanistan
Loading...
Published
2004-04
ISSN
Date
2013-08-08
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This guide has three objectives: First and foremost, it seeks to provide newcomers to the Administrative and political scene in Afghanistan with a basic guide to the structures and processes of government. Second and related, it intends to provide reformers with some understanding of how to work "with the grain" of the existing institutional arrangements. Third, this report seeks to pay tribute to the remarkable people who have kept the system running and who are now reforming it. In pursuing these objectives, this guide attempts to set out these underlying strengths of the public sector, describing the evolution of the Afghan state, the current political context, and the administrative and organizational components of the government. It sets out the legal basis and organizational responsibilities for key fiscal tasks including revenue collection, budget preparation and execution, and accounting and audit. It also describes the organizational structures in the provinces, the way in which the staffing establishment is determined, and the structure of pay and grading. In particular, it looks at the arrangements for service delivery in the education and health sectors. A companion paper, "Subnational Administration in Afghanistan : Assessment and Recommendations for Action," (report no. 29415) outlines some specific recommendations resulting from these studies.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Evans, Anne; Manning, Nick; Osmani, Yasin; Tully, Anne; Wilder, Andrew. 2004. A Guide to Government in Afghanistan. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14937 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Subnational Administration in Afghanistan, Volume 2. A Guide to Government in Afghanistan(Washington, DC, 2004-04-01)This report proposes a two-pronged strategy of government action for securing progress in sub-national administration, using the structures, and discipline that form the distinctive heritage of the Afghan state. One strand calls for the center to commit itself to delivering some basic support for provinces, districts, and provincial municipalities, in their functional role as service provider or commissioner, and in their political role as local representative of the unitary state. The second strand of the strategy is comprised of tailored incentives for sub-national administrations, that reflect their institutional and historical roots. The task is to make this de-concentrated system work, through effective incentives at the sub-national level that will entail the provision of valued resources that are triggered by simple measures of administrative effort, not performance, and tailoring the incentives to suit the specific situation of the administration, with distinct differences between the incentives provided to provinces, districts, and provincial municipalities. To this end, the report proposes unconditional commitments from the Government in Kabul to: complete the pension reform, i.e., build, and strengthen capacity within the central administration entities, increasing Treasury authority, and establishing procedures to strengthen the budgetary process. Likewise, it proposes to restore provincial infrastructure, and priority support for provincial health and education departments. By designing specific project support, it is intended to help shift the focus towards pro-province and pro-service delivery objectives.Publication Evaluation of World Bank Programs in Afghanistan, 2002-11(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-07-26)Despite extremely difficult security conditions, which deteriorated markedly after 2006, the World Bank Group has commendably established and sustained a large program of support to the country. While World Bank Group strategy has been highly relevant to Afghanistan's situation, beginning in 2006 the strategies can have gone further in adapting ongoing programs to evolving opportunities and needs and in programming activities sufficient to achieve the objectives of the pillars in those strategies. The Bank Group's direct financial assistance has been augmented effectively by analytic and advisory activities and donor coordination through the Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund. Knowledge services have been an important part of Bank Group support and have demonstrated the value of strategic analytical work, even in areas where the Bank Group may opt out of direct project financing. To enhance program effectiveness, the evaluation recommends that the World Bank Group help the government develop a comprehensive, long-term human resources strategy for the civilian sectors; focus on strategic analytical work in sectors that are high priorities for the government; assist in the development of local government institutions and, in the interim, support the development of a viable system for service delivery at subnational levels; assist in transforming the national solidarity program into a more sustainable financial and institutional model to consolidate its gains; help strengthen the regulatory environment for private sector investment; and scale up International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) support to the private sector.Publication Romania : Local Social Services Delivery Study, Volume 2. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2002-01-16)The study seeks to identify institutional, and procedural factors which may facilitate, or hamper the effectiveness of social services, and inter-governmental fiscal arrangements. Based on existing research on decentralization, the success of decentralized service delivery depends on factors, that include the quality of intergovernmental institutions, a stable fiscal framework, and a well established civil society, and social structure. The study focuses on public social services, where local governments play the greatest role, and, throughout the report, the greatest emphasis is on social assistance benefits, and services, addressing those cash benefits which are delivered, and financed by local governments, including national programs such as birth grants, emergency assistance, and the main poverty alleviation program. In education, the study focuses on compulsory, and secondary education, though it does not address specialized secondary education, which is under the purview of central ministries. The study comprises two volumes: volume 1 provides an overview of the issues, summarizes major findings, and presents policy options; volume 2 includes the detailed discussion, and analysis, and presents the empirical underpinnings of the report. The study finds that fiscal decentralization of poverty alleviation benefits, has undermined its effectiveness, and eroded social safety nets; thus the government is preparing the Minimum Income Guarantee Program Law to centralize financing of social assistance cash benefits. And, education seems to be the policy area with greatest potential for further decentralization, suggesting a careful capacity evaluation to decide whether to attain complete autonomy.Publication Subnational Administration in Afghanistan, Volume 1. Assessment and Recommendations for Action(Washington, DC, 2004-04-01)This report proposes a two-pronged strategy of government action for securing progress in sub-national administration, using the structures, and discipline that form the distinctive heritage of the Afghan state. One strand calls for the center to commit itself to delivering some basic support for provinces, districts, and provincial municipalities, in their functional role as service provider or commissioner, and in their political role as local representative of the unitary state. The second strand of the strategy is comprised of tailored incentives for sub-national administrations, that reflect their institutional and historical roots. The task is to make this de-concentrated system work, through effective incentives at the sub-national level that will entail the provision of valued resources that are triggered by simple measures of administrative effort, not performance, and tailoring the incentives to suit the specific situation of the administration, with distinct differences between the incentives provided to provinces, districts, and provincial municipalities. To this end, the report proposes unconditional commitments from the Government in Kabul to: complete the pension reform, i.e., build, and strengthen capacity within the central administration entities, increasing Treasury authority, and establishing procedures to strengthen the budgetary process. Likewise, it proposes to restore provincial infrastructure, and priority support for provincial health and education departments. By designing specific project support, it is intended to help shift the focus towards pro-province and pro-service delivery objectives.Publication Republic of Burundi Fiscal Decentralization and Local Governance : Managing Trade-Offs to Promote Sustainable Reforms(Washington, DC, 2014-10)Despite the remarkable progress achieved since the end of the conflict, Burundi still faces significant development challenges. Since 2005, the Government of Burundi has embarked on a potentially transformative process of decentralization, with the aim of strengthening social cohesion, improving local governance, and promoting access to basic infrastructure and service delivery. The weakness of the communal tax system, coupled with low mobilization of local revenue and nonexistent (current) or negligible (capital) transfers from the national budget threaten the financial viability of communes, which struggle to support even basic operating costs. Addressing a specific government request, the present study aims to provide concrete policy recommendations to help the Government of Burundi improve the financial and institutional sustainability of the decentralization reform process, while enabling communes to address popular demands and deliver better services. The report will also look at the implications of these macro-level challenges at the sectoral level, through a case study of the recent experiences of decentralized land administration services, whose responsibilities were recently transferred to communes. The report is based on results from interviews, fieldwork research, and qualitative focus group discussion, combined with existing administrative data and secondary sources on decentralization in Burundi. The present study is organized into four thematic chapters. Chapter one provides a snapshot of Burundiapos;s political and macroeconomic context, and reviews the evolution of the decentralization process to better understand how institutional, political, and bureaucratic dynamics have shaped the historical trajectory of decentralization and generated the outcomes observed today. Chapter two provides a systematic investigation of the status of fiscal decentralization in Burundi, and identifies key policy issues to be considered to ensure the medium-term sustainability of the reform process while at the same time addressing the short-term financial needs of communes. Chapter three provides an in-depth diagnostic of a key service delivery responsibility recently devolved to communes - the provision of land registration services and discusses the challenges and opportunities related to ongoing efforts to scale up access to these land services across 116 rural communes and Bujumbura. Chapter four shifts the focus to the nature of state citizen relations in an effort to better understand how citizen engagement in the decision-making process may be improved and local authorities held accountable for the provision of basic services.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.