Catalog

Three-Pronged Approach
ADB Review [ December 2005 ]

ADB is focusing on rebuilding transport, reconnecting energy sources, and reestablishing the management of natural resources

By Grant Curtis, (gcurtis@adb.org)
Senior Country Programs Specialist (Afghanistan)

AID BENEFITS ADB’s country strategy is helping Afghans help themselves

The CSP is ADB’s main policy guide to work in its developing member countries. In Afghanistan, the institution adopted a three-pronged approach under its initial CSP, which is focused on building muchneeded national capacity for carrying out development, establishing appropriate policy and institutional frameworks for accelerated development, and rebuilding infrastructure.

The Afghanistan Government asked that donors stick to a limited number of sectors (see table) to avoid overlap and to improve overall coordination with other donors. ADB projects thus are rebuilding transport (national roads and civil aviation), reconnecting its energy sources (electrical power and natural gas), and reestablishing the management of natural resources (agriculture, irrigation, and environment). Through grant and program loan support, it is also focusing on the governance and financial sectors.

“Although ADB will focus its efforts on promoting economic growth as the key means of reducing poverty, given the country’s many development challenges, we will also strive to incorporate social, gender, and human resource concerns in all our activities,” says Edward Haugh Jr., ADB’s Senior Advisor on Afghanistan Operations. He adds that ADB will engage local governments and civil society in planning and carrying out projects, as well as promote women’s participation. ADB will also give more attention to alternative livelihoods to help address the major problem of opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking.

The CSP was based on the government’s April 2002 National Development Framework, which itself was grounded in a series of sectoral and other needs assessments. These were undertaken jointly by ADB, World Bank, and United Nations System in 2001 and early 2002 to prioritize Afghanistan’s critical rehabilitation and development needs.

That framework included a strong focus on poverty reduction, capacity development, private sector-led economic growth, as well as provision of basic services to Afghanistan’s impoverished population. Specific targets and resource requirements were detailed in Securing Afghanistan’s Future, a strategic document that the government presented at the International Conference on Afghanistan held in Berlin in early 2004.

Grant Funding

ADB’s most recent CSP Update (CSPU), approved in August 2005, continues the focus on economic growth and poverty reduction, with the same sectoral emphasis. Projecting some $200 million in assistance per year between 2006 and 2008, the CSPU also pledges that up to half the total will be provided on a full grant basis from ADB’s Asian Development Fund (ADF).

The CSPU documents Afghanistan’s remarkable progress since emerging from conflict in 2002, but highlights the significant problems that still face the country, including extreme poverty, insecurity, weak human capacity, and gender inequality.

The CSPU features a 3-year assistance pipeline, including loans and ADF grants to address rural and livelihood concerns, rural finance, water resources management and irrigation, development of commercial infrastructure and livestock activities, and further support to transport and power and gas infrastructure. The 2006–2008 Afghanistan CSPU is available at www.adb.org/Documents/CSPs/AFG/2005.

Work has already begun on a new resultsbased CSP for Afghanistan. Developing the CSP will include consultation with the government and other stakeholders, including Afghan civil society, the private sector, and other development partners. The new CSP will reflect development priorities as determined by the government’s updated Afghanistan National Development Strategy, and will guide ADB assistance over the 2006–2009 period.

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