The Civilian Technical Assistance Programme (CTAP) of the Government of Afghanistan is a programme for providing international Technical Assistance to the Ministries, Commissions, Independent Directorates and other Agencies of the Afghan Government.  

It provides Technical Assistance according to four fundamental principles developed by the Afghan Government:

Government Ownership
CTAP is based on the principle that Technical Assistance for the Afghan government should be owned by, and accountable to, the Afghan government. The first line of report for an advisor is their client, not a donor.
 
Being Demand Driven
CTAP is based on the principle that when Technical Assistance is deployed, it should be deployed as a result of a need that is identified by the government itself. The deployment of Technical Assistance in the Afghan government shouldn't be decided in London or in Washington DC.
 
Capacity Development
CTAP believes that the main role for Technical Assistance is not to do the job of the government for it, but to build skills, improve systems and reform structures and processes. Technical Assistance should be based on the principle"give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day- teach a man to fish, and you feed him for his whole life".
 
Effectiveness
CTAP believes that to be effective Technical Assistance must be skilled, able to operate in Afghanistan and present in sufficient number and present for sufficient time. Skill level requires that Technical Assistance be international, while being able to operate in Afghanistan means that they should be Afghan expatriates, nationals of regional countries or nationals of other countries with significant relevant experience. Sufficient time and sufficient numbers means that individuals working as Technical Advisors should be in country for at least two years at a time, and should be in teams large enough to bring real change to the government. 

CTAP was therefore developed as a demand-driven programme in which government agencies can request teams of international Technical Advisors to implement medium-term capacity development projects in targeted parts of their structures. CTAP promotes ownership by ensuring that the requesting agency plays the strongest possible role in designing the capacity develeopment project, selecting the advisors it needs and managing them once in country.