31 August 2009 - The top United Nations envoy for Afghanistan, Kai Eide today urged the country’s future government to take the lead in managing Afghanistan’s development through a new and “massive institution-building programme”.

At the same time he welcomed the launch of a project that will see 15,000 civil servants trained in the essential skills needed for a capable and professional Afghan bureaucracy.

Speaking in front of a classroom at Afghanistan’s Civil Service Institute in Kabul Special Representative of the Secretary-General Kai Eide said focus would be needed in five areas for institution-building to succeed:

“I see this programme consisting of several key elements; Firstly the development of human capacity. This will require broad and ambitious training programmes, short-term for those who are the civil servants of today and long term for those who will serve the civil service of tomorrow; Secondly the development of the physical capacity of infrastructure on the ground. Today, for instance, only half of district governors have offices; Third, the development of technical capacity or IT, enabling the Government to be effective and stimulate interaction between the various layers of the administration. Fourth, the development of incentives that can attract administrators in various parts of the country. And lastly, the development of a culture of accountability that will convince the people that local administration are their servants and only have their concerns in mind.”

Around 15,000 civil servants are set to benefit from essential training in accounting, procurement, project management, policy making and human resources under the project launched today.

The Capacity Building on Five Common Functions Project was developed by Afghanistan’s Civil Service Commission with the assistance of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) and funding from the United States. The project will begin by developing a standard Afghan curriculum across five common functions, which will then be taught to 4000 key staff in Kabul and 11,000 officials from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan over the next two years.