An Assessment of Public Administrative Reforms in Afghanistan

This is a library based historical and qualitative research which reviews public administrative reforms in Afghanistan with a focus on international donors’ financial assistance and the commitment of political leadership in Afghanistan. The conclusion is withdrawn from analyzing the findings of other researches and reports published from 2006 to 2018. The findings of this paper show that despite all the obstacles, it is apparent that since 2001, the capacity of the public institutions and ministries has significantly improved in Afghanistan. They are now far better than few years back in catering services and management of finances. The capacity at the central level has drastically improved though at provincial and district levels it remains low. The progress made during the last few years can not be neglected though most of the citizens remain dissatisfied and doubt the effectiveness of the financial aid spent on various public administrative reforms undertaken. The analysis show that preference of individual donor interests over the general interests of the country, lack of coordination, transparency, poor management and monitoring have been some of the main reasons for ineffectiveness and inefficiency in the programs and projects implemented. Moreover, high security threats in the capital, provinces and remote areas of the country add up to the slow progress of administrative reforms. The number of incidents remains high, security conditions aggravate and no improvement to stabilize the country can be observed. The billions of US dollars spent by the US and other donor nations in Afghanistan have made very nominal impact in the improvement of security, economy, social change and administrative effectiveness. The overall impact has been very low as the economy remains weak and administration ineffective. Conflicting norms and values, nepotism and favoritism, existence of traditional and modern institutions performing the same functions further hinder the process of development. Afghanistan still depends on the financial
assistance of the international donors. If the donor nations leave Afghanistan alone, the country will once again face the tragedy of the 1990s for which the international communities have to pay even bigger price than what they are spending now. Investment in the improvement of the Afghan government will be a long term and wise investment which will give a sigh of relief to the international communities and yield better results in the years to come.