Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program Chapters 1–8 Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan Prepared for the USAID-Funded Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program by the Urban Management Centre on behalf of the International City/County Management Association This publication was made possible through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under Contract no. 306-A-00-07-00514-00. Any opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Independent Directorate for Local Governance, or USAID. This publication was prepared by the Urban Management Centre, which is responsible for its contents. Contact details: Ms. Manvita Baradi Director, UMC III Floor, AUDA Building, Usmanpura Ashram Road, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Tel: 91-79- 27546403/ 5303 Email: [email protected] Web: www.umcasia.org Copyright © 2010 by the International City/County Management Association, 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. All rights reserved, including rights of reproduction and use in any form or by any means, including the making of copies by any photographic process, or by any electronic or mechanical device, printed, written, or oral, or for sound or visual reproduction, or for use in any knowledge or retrieval system or device, unless permission in writing is obtained from the copyright proprietor. Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan © ICMA Introductory Material-2 Contents Preface Team of Contributors Acknowledgments A Urban Governance and Administration Chapter 1: Constitutional and Legal Framework of Governance in Afghanistan Chapter 2: Roles and Responsibilities of Municipalities Chapter 3: Good Urban Governance Chapter 4: Citizen Participation in Local Governance B Human Resource Management Chapter 5: Human Resource Development Chapter 6: Leadership and Executive Management Chapter 7: Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability Chapter 8: Public Relations, Media, and Communication Ethics Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan © ICMA Introductory Material-3 Preface The USAID-funded Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP, 2005-2010) focused on strengthening the municipal governments in 11 provincial capitals located primarily in southeastern Afghanistan: Jalalabad (Nangarhar Province), Gardez (Paktia Province), Asadabad (Kunar Province), Ghazni (Ghazni Province), Tirin Kot (Uruzgan Province), Khost (Khost Province), Panjshir City (Panjshir Province), Charikar (Parwan Province), Sharana (Paktika Province), Kandahar City (Kandahar Province), and Nili (DaiKondi Province). The goal of this program was to improve citizen satisfaction with municipal-level government in the selected capital cities by demonstrably enhancing the delivery of public services and improving the quality of life in each community. This goal was pursued by building governmental capacity at the municipal level through a “learning by doing” approach that included formal training (education) and managerial and technical assistance. This Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan represents a collection, reorganization, and expansion of reference materials on key municipal management topics, many of which were covered in a basic municipal training program delivered under AMSP for mayors and municipal managers and staff of the 11 provincial municipalities. This reference work complements the Municipal Governance in Afghanistan manual, which explained the legal framework and structure of municipal governance in Afghanistan and was published in 2009 and released in English, Dari, and Pashtu. This current publication incorporates experience of what has worked and what has not in other developing countries as well as in the developed world. It provides examples and leading practices from these experiences. The intended audiences are local trainers, municipal managers, national officials with municipal infrastructure and service responsibilities, and students of local government. This manual aims to provide broad coverage of various aspects of urban management by: Presenting tools and techniques for professionalizing urban management Clarifying internationally well known concepts in connection with the topics discussed Providing case studies on best management practices from other countries. The manual is divided into chapters grouped into eight sections. Each subject area is covered only at a basic or “introductory” level. The references listed at the end of each chapter cover the subject matter in greater detail. Section A, Urban Governance and Administration, provides an overview of the existing legal framework for urban governance in Afghanistan; the roles and responsibilities of municipalities and municipal officials; a broader context of good urban governance; and the various forms of citizen participation in urban governance. Section B, Human Resource Management, deals with issues of organizational design and the importance of staff development for an efficient and responsive municipality. Chapter 7 discusses the importance of ethics, transparency, and accountability in the context of municipal functioning, and Chapter 8 deals with the role of public relations, media, and communications in service delivery. Section C, Urban Planning, provides a comprehensive understanding of the fields of urban planning and strategic planning. It provides tools and techniques for the preparation, implementation, and monitoring of a development plan. Section D, Urban and Public Finance, provides an overview of key issues; introduces a framework for urban financial analysis; and addresses the questions of how and from where municipalities can mobilize the resources required to finance the provision of urban services Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan © ICMA Introductory Material-4 and the development and maintenance of urban infrastructure. Chapter 14 deals comprehensively with municipal accounting and provides tools for keeping accounts in municipalities. Section E, Local Economic Development, describes the various initiatives that municipalities can undertake to promote job creation and attract more businesses. It also highlights the importance of heritage management for local economic development in cities. Section F, Urban Poverty Alleviation, provides an overview of the issues relating to urban poverty and describes how to provide services for informal settlements. It also discusses the importance of tenure security and land titling for overall improved land management and land reforms. Section G, Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management, provides details on the process of managing large projects and planning, designing, and maintaining various services that municipalities provide. The section also provides details of efficient and transparent procurement processes that municipalities can adopt for procuring services from the private sector. Chapter 24 talks about municipal performance measurement and improvement and explains how municipal officials and decision makers can measure and monitor the performance of their service delivery. Chapter 25 dwells on the sensitive issue of environmental compliance, municipal planning and implementing large projects and the current Afghan laws that municipalities need to follow. Section H, Disaster Management, discusses how municipalities can be better prepared to handle disasters and undertake efficient community response. It also presents the current laws and framework regarding disaster preparedness in Afghanistan. Taken as a whole, this Municipal Management Manual is designed to form the basis for training in the wide range of subjects that constitute the fundamentals of municipal management practice. As USAID’s successor program in Afghanistan, the Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations (RAMP UP) moves forward, UMC and ICMA hope that local trainers will find this reference useful as they develop training materials—and that the successes and lessons learned in the AMSP program will be carried forward and built upon in these and other Afghanistan municipalities. Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan © ICMA Introductory Material-5 Team of Contributors Managing Editor: Meghna Malhotra, Deputy Director, Urban Management Centre Content Coordination: Manvita Baradi, Director, Urban Management Centre, India Editor: Diane Ferguson, ICMA, Washington, DC US Editing Supervision: Barbara Moore, ICMA, Washington DC Chief of Party, AMSP: Zia Ziauddin, Kabul, Afghanistan Program Manager: Shraddha Kharel-Pandey, ICMA, Washington, DC Senior Governance Advisor: Amy Nolan Osborn, ICMA, Washington, DC Chapter Authors: Deepti Nanawati, Seema Dave, Rajnikant Trivedi, Karan Agnihotri, Shelly Kulshreshtha, Vidyadhar Deshpande, Utkarsh Patel, Shivnath Patil, Awadesh Pathak, Manvita Baradi, and Meghna Malhotra Municipal Management Manual for Afghanistan © ICMA Introductory Material-6 Acknowledgments The Urban Management Centre and ICMA would like to thank USAID for supporting the production of this manual for the local government trainers in Afghanistan, and we would like to acknowledge the team of contributors, both Afghan and international, who helped contribute to earlier reference materials whose content may be reflected in part in this manual. We would also like to thank Ziauddin Zia and Amy Nolan Osborn from ICMA in Kabul and Washington, DC respectively, who initially supported the idea of writing this