Community
Development

Community Development
Sector Overview

We focus on establishing community institutions as layer foundations for strengthened local governance, building their capacities to lead and manage socio-economic development, and conflict management, and increasing access of target populations to income generation and sustainable livelihood opportunities in target provinces of Afghanistan.
Our objectives are aligned with Afghanistan National Development Strategies (ANDS). Read more our experience and contribution’s toward strengthened sustainable Afghan society through the following key words.

Strengthening
Local Governance

After decades of conflict, supporting and strengthening local governance are required to ensure social inclusion and environmental sustainability, improving economic development and maximize the administrative efficiency among community members in targeted provinces. Throughout this strategic approach on strengthening local governance, community institutions are mobilized and established through facilitation of fair and democratic election process at the local level.
The community structures are registered with official governmental relevant entities in which they prioritize their needs through meaningful participation of men and women and provide them with a referral mechanism through creating feasible linkages between governmental and none governmental entities and local communities to advocate for their basic needs and take the lead in identifying and leading socio-economic opportunities and value chain activities.
Furthermore, community institutions are provided with awareness raising activities to know about their roles and responsibilities and make sure that they have the ability to manage their resources accordingly. Beneficiaries covered during the past five years: 8,163 CDCs, 8,752 SHGs, 641 VSLAs

Capacity Building of
Community Institutions

In order to prevent dependency, minimize an over-reliance on external expert’s knowledge, resources and solutions on socio and economic development, community institutions are provided with the required capacity-building program to be well-prepared and act as community activists towards socio and economic development at the community level
We build the capacity of community institutions through conduction of trainings, exposure visits, coaching and ongoing support to prioritize and lead socio-economic initiatives as well as resolute locally-emerged conflicts. Through conduction of capacity-building programs, community institutions are made functional, trusted, and well-rounded. In addition, the existing knowledge and experience is shared among communities, innovative ideas are cascaded and integral relationship is built
Beneficiaries covered during the past five years: 244,890 CDC members (97,956 women and 146,934 men), 262,560 SHG members (210,048 women and 52,512 men), 19,230 VSLA members (15,384 women and 3,846 men)

Livelihood & Resilience
Building

CHA defines resilience as the ability of women and men to realize their rights and improve their wellbeing despite shocks, stresses and uncertainty. CHA will develop a bottom-up participatory approach involving local committees and their associations to enable the beneficiaries themselves to clearly identify their current needs and gaps, establish selection criteria for target beneficiaries, and find solutions to address their constraints. Resilience Building Initiatives would link short-term emergency action to longer-term benefits; developing resilience capacities and scaling-up innovations for impact. In practical terms resilience in CHA programs would imply strong focus on local service delivery systems; enhancement of livelihoods and income generation; sustainable basic social services and fostering social cohesion. CHA’s resilient livelihood approach ensures that: (i) the food security needs of vulnerable, conflict-affected people are met; (ii) a culture of entrepreneurship is promoted within a context of inclusive value chain development; (iii) employment generation; (iv) social impact has priority over individual impact; and (v) empowered women are shaping and contributing to economic opportunities. These approaches have helped our programs in improving youth employment and participation and linking with private sector.
Beneficiaries covered during the past five years: 925 HH