Managing for Development Results at ADB

Results Matter October 2007

MfDR Country Case: Afghanistan
By Brian D. Fawcett, Country Director, Afghanistan Resident Mission

Planning the reconstruction of a traditional irrigation canal distributor with community irrigation water managers, Balkh province

In early 2006, the Government tabled its Interim National Development Strategy (IANDS) at the London International Conference on Afghanistan. The London Conference also saw the adoption of the Afghanistan Compact. The Compact details a set of outcomes, benchmarks, and timelines that encompass key Millennium Development Goals and Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness targets. The IANDS is a credible effort to articulate the Government’s security, governance, and economic and social development priorities, develop specific sector strategies to achieve those priorities, and detail overall resource requirements. The IANDS thus provides a comprehensive plan for building the necessary institutions, infrastructure, and enabling environment required to promote strong growth in investment, employment, and incomes, and to reduce poverty.

Infrastructure Development
At the Government’s request and in line with the initial National Development Framework and the subsequent IANDS, assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has focused on infrastructure development in support of Afghanistan’s overall economic growth and on critical capacity development support. A strength of ADB’s country strategy in Afghanistan has been its relatively narrow focus that has helped ADB to better understand sector constraints and opportunities, build trust and good working relations with counterpart agencies, concentrate ADB resources to develop the capacity needed to implement development projects, and better coordinate with other development partners with ADB taking the lead in selected sectors. The clear sector focus has also helped reduce transaction costs, improve supervision, and better meet planned project processing schedules in an overall context of extremely weak national capacity.

Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2007–2011
A new CPS is in the final stages of preparation. It is fully aligned with the Government’s IANDS and is a continuation of ADB’s 2002–2006 Country Program and Strategy but with increased focus and selectivity as per ADB’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTS II). Under the new CPS, ADB’s assistance to Afghanistan will focus on (i) agriculture, including irrigation and water resource management, rural development, and commercial agriculture; (ii) energy, including power generation, transmission, and distribution, and developing indigenous energy resources such as micro, small, and medium hydropower; and (iii) road infrastructure with a focus on rehabilitation and construction of national roads, including links with neighboring countries. The new CPS also features the following themes to be mainstreamed in sector operations: capacity development, counter-narcotics, gender, governance, private sector development, and regional cooperation.
Development effectiveness and MfDR considerations are embedded in both the IANDS and the Afghanistan Compact through defined targets and benchmarks. Related monitoring mechanisms are also in place, including through the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board (JCMB) of which ADB is a full member. The CPS results framework is directly linked to the results frameworks developed for IANDS and Afghanistan Compact monitoring. CPS sector and thematic road maps describe key expected outcomes from ADB assistance, the results chain, links, and results indicators for monitoring implementation, again derived from the Afghanistan Compact and IANDS.

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