The Afghanistan Subnational Governance Programme’s (ASGP) Annual Progress Report outlines the project’s results and activities across all 34 provinces during 2013. ASGP is a capacity development programme that supports more effective, sustainable and inclusive subnational governance among the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), Provincial Governors Offices (PGO) and District Governors Offices (DGO), all 34 Provincial Councils (PC), and 19 selected municipalities. UNDP/ASGP technical and capacity development specialists, who work in seven regional offices including Kabul, support these activities and results, in partnership with ASGP-funded personnel in subnational offices and in IDLG.

Highlights of this Annual Progress Report include new partnerships with the Ministry of Finance, focused on training on provincial budgeting and public financial management, and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, on gender mainstreaming and gender training for the tashkeel (Afghan civil service). Current partnerships have also been expanded, primarily with IDLG (and the Adam Smith Institute’s technical assistance embedded there) to assist IDLG with their expanded provincial mandate. Other examples include partnerships with the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC), focusing on increasing tashkeel capacity, and with civil society, particularly women’s groups and the media, to support their active participation in governance. Internal UNDP partnerships include work with other UNDP projects, such as the Gender Equality Project (GEP) and the National Area Based Development Programme (NABDP), and with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA). ASGP regional teams are also playing a key role in the UNDP’s regionalisation strategy, which promotes UN coherence and efficiency and supports UNDP and the UN to deliver as one. ASGP recorded substantial progress across its three key outputs, which support IDLG; Provincial Governors’ Offices (PGO) and District Governors Offices (DGO) and Provincial Councils (PCs), and municipalities. ASGP and its government partners delivered key results in areas of national and subnational policy and legislation, organizational reform, particularly at Provincial and District Governors’ Offices, and subnational personnel, especially tashkeel capacity.