Inter-Communal Rural Development Project (IRDP)

Background and Objectives

In response to the request of Government of Afghanistan to accelerate community led development at inter-community level by building on the experiences of National Solidarity Programme (NSP), the Government of Japan (GoJ) financed the Inter-Communal Rural Development Project (IRDP) in Balkh, Bamyan and Kandahar Provinces. UN-HABITAT has been facilitating IRDP activities in 13 Cluster Community Development Councils (CCDCs, 6 in Kandahar and 7 in Bamyan) out of 56 NSP CDCs in three districts of Bamyan and two districts of Kandahar. Through the implementation of inter-communal based development projects, the project aims at laying the foundation for a sustainable form of local governance, rural reconstruction and poverty alleviation in cluster communities.

The broad objective of the Facilitating Partner Services in the Bamyan and Kandahar Provinces is to form cluster-level institutions or CCDCs as the basic unit of collective decision making in order to ensure the participatory development of a Cluster Community Development Plan (CCDP). Through these activities the capacity of communities in the fields of planning, managing, monitoring and operating of development projects is enhanced.

Results (2009)

* Carried out activities from community mobilization to project design in all 13 selected Cluster CDCs (56 CDCs) and selected a total of 15 prioritized projects for implementation;
* Capacity development activities through on-the-job training, workshops and other project implementation activities have been conducted;
* All 15 sub-projects have been completed in Bamyan and Kandahar Provinces;
* Sub-projects include Micro Hydro Power (80KW) project in Yakawlang District (Bamyan Province), flood protections walls in Sayghan District (Bamyan Province), solar panel project in Dand District (Kandahar Province) and irrigation improvement in Daman District (Kandahar Province);
* Micro Hydro Power produces electricity for more than 1,000 families of Nayak Cluster CDC in Yakawlang District of Bamyan Province.