24 May 2011 – Speaking in front of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his cabinet members in the Presidential Palace, a woman is making a series of demands. She is a representative from a District Development Assembly (DDA), and she is reading from a joint DDA declaration that she wants the government to hear.

“We, the DDA members, request all government institutions … to further invest in empowering the DDAs through capacity development, funding for development projects in every district, and by supporting open and fair elections.

“Currently, 37 percent of DDA members are women. All districts should continue their efforts to include the voice of women in development in order to achieve comprehensive development in all sectors across the entire district.

“We believe the DDAs should be officially recognized by the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as legitimate district-level development local governance institutions.”

Nearly 400 members of the DDAs, representing all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, had gathered in Kabul for the First National Conference of District Development Assemblies. The conference, sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) through the National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP), provided a forum for DDA members to share the lessons learned and discuss challenges for district-level development. The three-day conference culminated in an eight-point declaration jointly signed by the DDA representatives in attendance.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through NABDP, has supported the establishment of 382 DDAs to date. NABDP works with local residents to elect DDA members, and develops the capacity of the DDAs to identify community needs and priorities and devise community-oriented project plans. DDAs coordinate the needs of the communities with traditional government structures such as shuras, as well as provincial and district governments. “Watch a short overview of how DDAs are formed below.”

DDAs, which have been in existence since 2006, are ideally placed to become legally recognized and institutionalized within district-level governance institutions as the government begins to implement the Afghanistan Sub-national Governance Policy. And the DDA Conference provided the ideal forum for DDA representatives to voice these concerns

“There is a problem that is always creating obstacles for our daily development activities,” said a DDA representative from the Eastern Region. “The Community Councils, established by Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), don’t have coordination with DDAs. And these councils receive monthly cash allowances from IDLG while in the DDAs, all members work voluntary.”

Says a representative from the Northeast region, “We requested his Excellency Hamid Karzai and ILDG, to provide DDAs with a legal status and pay kind attention to the institutionalization of the DDAs.”

With more than 200 members of the Parliament, line ministries, and international community in attendance, the DDA members made their voices – and those of the communities they represent – heard loud and clear.

The National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP) commenced in 2002 as a joint initiative between the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the goal of contributing to a sustainable reduction of poverty and an improvement of livelihoods in rural Afghanistan. The programme is sponsored by the governments of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the UK.