Integrity Watch Afghanistan enters its fifth year of fighting corruption through local communities

Thursday, May 03, 2012: Integrity Watch Afghanistan entered fifth year of its Community Based Monitoring program which started in April 2008. The program is aimed at empowering local communities to monitor infrastructure projects in their localities. On the occasion of completing four successful years of community based monitoring in Afghanistan, Mr. Yama Torabi, Director of Integrity Watch said, “Community Based Monitoring is much more than mere monitoring; it gives people hope that they can do something about corruption. The scope is much larger because it gives people a sense of ownership.”

Community Based Monitoring is the first of its kind in Afghanistan implemented by Integrity Watch. The program has covered a total of 421 construction projects in 29 districts of seven provinces including Bamyan, Badakhshan, Balkh, Herat, Nangerhar, Parwan, and Panjshir. Mr. Mir Ahmad Abid, Director of Economy of Parwan province said that the directorate is faced with a shortage of technical and logistical capacity to monitor construction work which has resulted in low quality of construction projects. “However, the situation is different in areas where community monitoring exists” said Abid.  Abdul Manan, a local monitor who volunteered to monitor a road construction project in Sarak-e-Wazir area of Parwan province evaluated the program as very effective. “It is not a difficult job since I get a lot of technical support from Integrity Watch” said Abdul Manan.

Community Based Monitoring program is a collaboration between local communities and Integrity Watch in which local communities provide volunteers and Integrity Watch provides awareness and technical support to monitor construction projects. The program aims to empower citizens to participate in the lives of their communities, feel ownership of development aid, and combat corruption at the local level. The long term goal is to expand community monitoring to other areas to cover services such as education and health.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan is an Afghan civil society organization committed to increasing transparency, integrity and accountability in Afghanistan through the provision of policy-oriented research, development of training tools, and facilitation of policy dialogue.

For further information, please contact us, at +93(0)785431054 or info@iwaweb.org. Please visit our website at www.iwaweb.org to get more information about Integrity Watch Afghanistan. 

Mining contracts might lead to “resource curse”

Afghanistan has issued four more mine tenders to private investors so far this year. The nine blocks that are offered for sale include rich gold and copper deposits in north and west of the country. However, state institutions require deep knowledge and capacity to handle all aspects of the mining operations of such scale. Developing necessary capacity to dealing with social, environmental, economic, cultural and political impacts of extractive industry takes many years. In addition, a profound understanding of demography will make it easy for the government to negotiate deals that would spin out positive externalities for greater number of Afghans.

 

The Ministry of Mines which is the custodian of the natural resources of Afghanistan still has to develop the needed capacity to regulate and inspect current mining projects in an effective manner. The new contracts that will be inked by the end of 2012 will put additional strain on the existing capacity. The views about the critical gap in capacity of Ministry of Mines, despite positive developments in the recent years, are shared by many including some donor agencies.

Afghanistan certainly needs revenue and investment in the mining sector to cover its expenses and to develop a self-sustaining economy. However, the pace of investment in the mining sector must match the capacity of the regulatory bodies in order to support the economy and to benefit the citizens. Due to low capacity, the Afghan Government will certainly face serious challenges to re-invest the revenue from the mining sector in a sustainable manner. There is a risk that this lack of capacity may accentuate once the international support dwindles further.

The rush in opening up the mining sector in such a manner is subjugated to serious risks. The Afghan Government needs to exercise caution not to stretch the existing regulatory and oversight capacity beyond its limits. Otherwise, quality control will be compromised that would lead to disastrous situations with social, environmental, economic, cultural and political repercussions. The decision makers need to realize that stationary minerals are better and safer underground rather over ground that would leave the Afghan citizens worse off.