Faheem Merchant

Analyzing the sustainability of community driven development in Afghanistan using the National Solidarity Program case study

Faheem Merchant

Analyzing the sustainability of community driven development in Afghanistan using the National Solidarity Program case study

In the same way that microfinance initiatives provide resources to individuals and allows them the decision making freedom for the best projects to pursue, community driven development (CDD) provides small villages with funding to develop communities as free decision making bodies responsible for their own development. The National Solidarity Program (NSP) is Afghanistan’s community driven development initiative. Although the NSP is recognized as a successful programme, the long term sustainability of NSP has not been understood and this research investigates the NSP using many different characteristics including cost, time, funding, maintenance, lifespan and resiliency, insurgency attacks, skills development, dependency on government, community skills development, transparency and social cohesion. The sustainability of the NSP is a key focus of future World Bank investment in Afghanistan and the results can potentially be used by other countries considering their own CDD implementation in the future.