Urban Governance in Afghanistan: Assessing the New Urban Development Programme and Its Implementation

Improving the good governance agenda in Afghanistan must emphasise the burgeoning urban sphere and with it the importance of municipal government, since urbanisation has now been recognised as one of the most significant drivers of change. While the urbanisation rate at the turn of the 21st century was estimated at about 10-15 percent, it now stands at some 8.3 to 10.1 million or about 22-25 percent, depending on how “urban” is defined. During publication of this paper, the preparatory work for a city support programme is being finalized with an eye to being implemented in a few months. Therefore, the paper assesses both the conceptual framework of the national programme, and its implementation.