Afghan Aid That Works | Christian Science Monitor

Mohammad Ehsan Zia wrote an article for the Christian Science Monitor detailing the success of the National Solidarity Program (NSP) in Afghanistan. As you may recall, one of the PCR Project's key recommendations from "Breaking Point: Measuring Progress in Afghanistan," was to expand the National Solidarity Program and shift 50 percent of the development budget to the provincial level.

...the NSP has been revolutionary. Since its inception in 2003, the NSP has reached over 15.4 million Afghans. These communities have democratically elected community development councils in 352 of Afghanistan's 364 districts. It's helped finance more than 35,000 projects. Since the community development councils give Afghans a sense of local ownership, villagers are volunteering their own labor, doing away with expensive security details. Human Rights Watch has observed that schools built by the NSP have been defended by the communities that participated in their construction. And NSP projects are on average 30 percent cheaper than those built by foreign nongovernmental organizations.

All of this has been achieved for a relatively small investment of $452 million, a fraction of the money already spent in Afghanistan and other international development efforts.