Randomized impact evaluation of Afghanistan's national solidarity program : executive summary of the final report (English)

The National Solidarity Program (NSP) is the largest development program in Afghanistan. Since its inauguration in 2003, NSP has established 32,000 community development councils (CDCs) across 361 districts in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and has... See More + The National Solidarity Program (NSP) is the largest development program in Afghanistan. Since its inauguration in 2003, NSP has established 32,000 community development councils (CDCs) across 361 districts in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and has financed nearly 65,000 development projects. NSP seeks to improve the access of rural villagers to basic services and to create a foundation of village governance based on democratic processes and female participation. The NSP impact evaluation (IE) is a multi-year randomized control trial designed to measure the effects of implementation of the second phase of NSP on a broad range of economic, political, and social indicators. The sample for study consists of 500 villages selected jointly with NSP and implementing partners in mid-2007. The study tests a series of hypotheses which examine the impacts at midline and end line of NSP on the access of villagers to utilities, services and infrastructure; on the economic welfare of villagers; on local governance; on political attitudes and state-building; and on social norms. NSP funded utilities projects deliver substantial increases in access to drinking water and electricity, but infrastructure projects are less effective. As a consequence, NSP has limited impacts on long-term economic outcomes such as consumption or asset ownership. This brief gives introduction; describes methodology and data sources; and lastly gives conclusion.  See Less -

Document also available in : Dari, Pashto