Afghanaid pioneered community-led development in Afghanistan in the mid-1990’s; since then we have made the approach central to all our work and local, village-based committees are engaged in our needs identification, project planning, project implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The local ownership this approach creates is key to the sustainability of our work, and the bond engendered between Afghanaid and ordinary people is fundamental to our identity.

By building community capacity to plan their own development and implementing projects in partnership, community-led development is integrated in all of our projects. Afghanaid began pioneering the community-led development approach in Afghanistan as early as 1995, creating councils at the village level to design projects and oversee their implementation. Afghanaid draws on its expertise in community development in the design and implementation of its diverse portfolio of its projects.

Community members practice first aid, potentially life-saving skills in emergency situationsWomen                                                                                  

In our Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programme, we have built community capacity to mitigate the risk from local hazards, be first responders to natural disasters, and integrate DRR in all new infrastructure.

We have adapted the community-led development model to natural resource management by creating associations which sustainably manage communal resources and ensure equitable access.

And in our women’s economic empowerment programming, we join women together in self-help groups, associations, and cooperatives to enable them to set up rotating lending and more efficiently reach markets.