1. Creating Awareness on Beneficiary Accountability among Community Leaders in Afghanistan

By Paul Gol
Afghanistan communities remain one of the most vulnerable on the face of the earth. The communities are constantly faced with a myriad of disasters both natural and man made. The three decades of bloody conflicts has left a trail of abandoned military equipments and land mines. Death, fear,mistrust and extreme vulnerability, especially among the most vulnerable in the communities, women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities remain a constant challenge. With the influx of foreign troops and a large number of aid agencies it’s becoming increasingly imperative to ensure that basic accountability principles and standards are upheld.

There are two major challenges in implementing beneficiary accountability. First, is the challenge of ensuring that the local leadership understand the concept of accountability in the local context and are able to relate to it effectively. The second challenge is creating a learning environment by inspiring all the stakeholders to reflect critically on progress, to learn from mistakes and to generate ideas for making improvements.

A field trip to Balvchkhel Village of Kapisa Province where Tearfund carried out a comprehensive Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) process is one case study on how these challenges can be overcome and the dire need to create awareness on beneficiary accountability among leaders. The Accountability Officer in the company of the Kapisa Project Manager and Project Accountability Focal Point met the local community leadership the ‘Shura’ also referred to as The Village Community Development Committee. This particular community headed by Mr Ibrahim works very closely with other three committees within the village.

The main responsibilities of the committee are among other functions to;
• Contact other NGOs1 on behalf of the community,
• Community mobilisation for Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD),
• Managing and resolving conflicts within the community,
• Ensure security,
• Management of development programme.

Through this committee Tearfund Kapisa project managed to mobilise communities for the Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS). The CLTS approach uses PRA2 methods to enable local communities analyse their sanitation conditions and collectively internalize the terrible impact of open defecation on public health and on the entire neighborhood environment. It encourages local communities to visit the dirtiest and filthiest areas in the neighbourhood.
Appraising and analysing their practices shocks, disgusts and shames people. This style is provocative and fun,and is hands-off in leaving decisions and action to the community. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) focuses on igniting a change in sanitation behaviour rather than constructing toilets.

This is not only in line with Tearfund’s quality standard (10) on Environmental Sensitivity but also enables the communities to identify viable methods of disposing of stool after defecation.The accountability officer gave an analogy of two characters Abdul Rahman and Ahmed Wali in an effort to explain accountability in order to enhance easy understanding;

Abdul
Abdul Rahman is a local businessman he has a family of seven children. The family house is small and there is need to either expand it or construct a bigger one. He contracts a mason, travels to Kabul and purchases construction materials, shows the mason the site of the new house and construction begins.
The family asks him what is happening and he responds he is constructing a bigger house for the family and the family realizing it is too late to give inputs agrees with him.

Ahmed
Ahmed Wali runs a retail shop in the local shopping centre. He has a family of six children. He has just made good profit from his business. Over the years and due to the increasing size of the family he contemplates the need for more space. One day after dinner he calls the family together and asks them what they felt about the current accommodation. Each family member is given an opportunity to speak and consensus is reached on the need to put up new dwellings. On the new dwelling the wife says she needs a bigger space for cooking, the first born son says he would prefer to have his own room. The only daughter who is turning seven in three months time also wishes to have her own room. The plan is agreed upon, materials are bought and thehouse is constructed.

The Accountability Officer then posed the question who between these two was Accountable, to whom and why? One elder shouted Ahmed and there was a sense of consensus in the room. Another elder said that Abdul did not seem to care about what the family thought or felt and had taken upon himself to make decisions on their behalf. Another member commended Ahmed for spending time with the family to explain the situation and to listen to what the family members wanted. With these comments it was evidently clear that Accountability, referred to in Afghanistan as ‘hesabdihi’ referring to accounts was now understood in terms of communityconsultations, involvement and information sharing and feedback handling. Whereas Abdul meant well for his family and wants the best for them his approach does not proved his beneficiaries, the family, with any platform to give views.

Resolution
The leaders resolve to adapt the ‘Ahmed approach’ in their work as a co-ordinating and supervisory organ of development in the villages. The chairman Mr Ibrahim asserted that it was his responsibility now to share with the other Shura councils both men and women on the issues discussed at the meeting and would talk about Abdul and Ahmed. He said the analogy was good since it consisted of local names that many people would identify with and would therefore understand accountability in a very simple way. The elders unanimously said that only ‘Ahmed NGOs’ were welcome to work among them.

For more information contact:
Paul Gol, Accountability Officer,
Tearfund UK, Afghanistan DMT,
E-mail: dmt-afghan-ao@tearfund.org