Publication Archive

Based on pilot townhalls in Afghanistan, this piece examines how citizens can participate in the formulation of the national budget. Initial findings identified citizens’ stronger-than-expected interest with the national budget, and how their engagement can…

ISE supports Afghanistan’s vision of inclusive development and self-reliance via its Afghanistan Support Program (ASP). The program provides high-level strategic advice as well as technical inputs, when needed, to help Afghanistan implement its development strategy.

Many global policy agreements on increased aid effectiveness have advocated for development partners to use and build the capacity of the aid recipient country’s institutions to achieve greater sustainability. However, experience from fragile and conflict-affected…

Khyber Farahi, former senior adviser to the president on migration and social development, speaks with ISE on his experience working on community-driven development (CDD) in Afghanistan and the critical role of fostering community-ownership in the…

Afghanistan’s Citizens’ Charter program is national in scope, which means that the core model of facilitation must be able to adapt to a tremendously broad range of socioeconomic environments. This is particularly important as the…

Afghanistan’s nomadic and semi-nomadic populations are highly vulnerable and are generally excluded from development interventions. The Citizens’ Charter aims to work with this population to provide key services. This brief sets out key areas that…

This brief discusses various aspects of the Citizens’ Charter approach to poverty reduction. These include incorporating a deeper understanding of poverty dynamics into the program’s architecture, engaging provincial and district level authorities and programs, promoting…

Facing critical challenges to its public financial management system, the Government of Afghanistan seized a window of opportunity to successfully craft a new budget process that prioritized reform sequencing, transparency, and public engagement, and laid…

In conflict-affected or fragile states there is often a significant gap between what the state is able to deliver and what the citizens of that state, as well as international partners, expect the state to…

This is the first Fiduciary and Development Risk and Cost-Effectiveness Assessment commissioned by the Government and for the Government. The conclusions of this assessment are: PFM systems are relatively strong; systemic fiduciary risks fell quickly…

The old Silk Road was not only a fixed route, but a constellation of rules, agreements, relationships and institutions that created an integrated economic and political system across Asia. The New Silk Road should similarly…

Just as ancient transcontinental trade networks generated prosperity, security and political stability in Asia, a 21st-century Silk Road could secure Asia’s future. The Asian continent is undergoing a great economic transformation that presents tremendous opportunities…