The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is the largest social development agency within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Afghanistan. Since 2002, AKF has been implementing integrated development programming in 7 key provinces throughout central and northern Afghanistan. AKF uses a Multi-Input Area Development (MIAD) approach aimed at providing sequenced and simultaneous essential services to rural communities in parallel with building the capacities of the public, local government, private, and civil society sectors.
In recent years, the donor community and the central Government of Afghanistan has given considerable attention to Afghanistan’s public sector for the development of good governance and the establishment of representative government structures in Afghanistan. Notable progress has been made, including the evolution of critical policies, the articulation of a division of functions, and the de-conflicting of parallel or competing bodies. However, as a result of the relative newness of sub-national government institutions, an ongoing centralized governance structure, and in many cases the continued under-support and unclear responsibilities of sub-national entities, sub-national government structures typically lack the resources and capacity to plan their own development agendas, deliver services, and represent their constituencies according to their mandates. This, in turn, hinders coherent development processes in communities, and creates barriers to their access to quality services and their participation in development planning. Although significant efforts have been made by the Afghan government, national and international agencies have not yet reached to maturity and there is much more to be done.
To date, sub-national governance programming has been carried out by AKF’s Human and Institutional Development (HID) Unit which is now known as the Civil Society and Governance sector (CSG). This unit aims to build inclusive, pro-poor, participatory and accountable civil society and governance institutions at the village, cluster, district, and provincial levels. The CSG Unit programming focuses on both the supply and demand sides of governance, building capacity and awareness within governance institutions, whilst mobilizing the public to engage actively with these institutions. CSG’s sub-national governance programming supports formal governance structures. CSG SNG has focused primarily on providing support to provincial and district level government institutions, namely selected provincial Line Departments and District Governors’ Offices. The team aims to expand these efforts to include Municipal Governance in CSG Sub-national governance program as per the following reasons.
Logic for supporting AKF Staff with Advanced Good Governance and E-Governance best practice training and exposure visit
AKF (Afg) has been implementing Good Governance interventions since 2007 in order to institutionalize models of best practices within its core district areas. Interventions have been built upon each other in order to create an inclusive, pro poor, accountable and transparent environment between the government and community. As many of our District and Provincial Governor’s and staff have been trained on these best practices, some are no longer in place, and some communities have elevated from their previous positions and now demand a higher level of interventions that serve an advanced level of good governance to increase the scale and scope of public service delivery.
Studies and research has shown that countries where good governance indicators are improving, poverty rates are falling thus when the quality of infrastructure and public services are better, poverty rates fall and reduce. In order to attack urban poverty, public services and good governance must be improved and supported.
Learning about advanced Good Governance and E-Governance best practices will help new AKF staff working on sub national governance programs fully understand the purpose, logic, and outcomes of our program activities. It will also prompt staff to encourage government actors and themselves on how to initiate new innovative ideas, models, approaches on public service delivery.
Main Goal of Training visit:Goal:
Strengthening the capacities of AKF Staff to advance good governance and e-governance practices among DGO, PLDs and PGO actors in order to further enabling them to expand the scale and scope of public service delivery in AKF target communities and regions.
Objectives:
Time/duration:
Seven days including arrival and departure days. Four days training, One day exposure visit and two days for departure and arrival
Proposed countries:The training and exposure visit should be organized in nearby countries that has similar context to Afghanistan or there is more examples of good governance best practices such as India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and turkey.
There should be four day training and one day exposure visit to government offices to visit governance best practices, e-governance examples for better public service delivery and local government planning processes.
Target Participants:AKF (Afg) Sub national governance (SNG) staff from Badakhshan, Bamyan, Baghlan, Takhar, Samangan and Kabul National program office (NPO) .
The total number of participants will be between (10-12) from mentioned offices.
End Result: How will the training visit improve job performances of participants and benefit the organization?
Through the training and exposure visit, participants will return with a stronger sense of new ideas related to governance best practices, e-governance, and government planning process at local level and etc. which will ultimately enable the team to modify and improve current governance interventions.
Budget availability:There will be10-12 participants from Kabul and regional offices who will participate the training and exposure visit.
The consultancy AKF (Afg) chooses will be responsible to coordinate logistics in an all-inclusive fee which will include the arrangement of: transportation, travel, visa, stationary, food and accommodation cost and all other cost associated with this training.
Training time:The consultancy should provide the training between 1st to 3rd week of November 2019 and all other arrangements/coordination should be happen before this time.
ApplicationIndividuals/organizations interested in leading this consultancy must submit their CVs/fact sheets and a technical and cost proposal through electronic mail by COB Oct 22nd 2019 to jobs.afghanistan@akdn.org
Important Notes:Please quote the Vacancy Number as the Subject of the e-mail when sending your application.
Supporting documents, e.g. diplomas, recommendation letters, identification card(s) etc., are not required at this stage, therefore not to be sent along with the application.
Only short listed candidates will be contacted for further assessment.
Female candidates are encouraged to apply. Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to equal opportunity and safe guarding of children, beneficiaries, partners, community members and employees in accordance with AKF (Afg)’s safeguarding policy.
Your details and information shared on this advertisement shall remain confidential.
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a non-denominational international development agency established in 1967 by His Highness the Aga Khan. Its mission is to develop and promote creative solutions to problems that impede social development, primarily in Asia and East Africa. Created as a private, non-profit foundation under Swiss law, it has branches and independent affiliates in 19 countries.
The Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan (AKF (Afg)) is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of international, private, non-denominational development agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in some of the poorest parts of the developing world. The Network’s organizations have individual mandates that range from the fields of health and education to architecture, rural development and promotion of private-sector enterprise and institutions that seek to empower communities and individuals, usually in disadvantaged circumstances, to improve living conditions and opportunities.
