7 October 2010 - Over twenty representatives from various civil society organizations gathered in Herat on Wednesday at the initiative of the United Nations to discuss how to improve the delivery and monitoring of government services to the population of Herat province.

“We received strong support form the governor to organize this meeting,” stressed Edgardo Buscaglia, chief advisor for the United Nations Development Programme’s Accountability and Transparency Project (UNDP-ACT).

“We intend to train civil society organizations to travel to the remote areas and monitor services in such areas as health, education, infrastructure. Those organizations will then report to the Provincial Council which will raise the issue with the Governor’s Office and with the line departments,” added Mr Buscaglia.

To implement UNDP-ACT, the UNDP’s Afghan Sub-National Governance Project (UNDP-ASGP) will finance the training and the activities of the monitors, while the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will act as trainer and facilitator.

Atul Sekhar, regional project manager for UNDP-ASGP, explains: “Our goal is to have the civil society actors, the Provincial Council members and the Governor’s Office to agree on a framework to monitor and evaluate the delivery of services, and eventually to improve the capacity of the local government.”

This pilot activity will be replicated in Jalalabad, Mazar and Kabul.

By Fraidoon Poya & Henri Burgard, UNAMA