Annex A
CHRONOLOGY CHART OF AFGHANAID'S SUBMISSIONS
TO CNTF
| Date | Event
|
| April 2006 | Afghanaid submitted CNTF proposal via Ministry of Agriculture for livelihoods activities in Ghor and Badakhshan provinces.
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| May 2006 | Based on request from the Ministry of Agriculture (Yaqub Roshan of USAID-funded RAMP project) to reduce mention of CDCs from proposal, text was revised and re-submitted.
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| September 2006 | Afghanaid re-submitted proposal in response to a request from Ministry of Agriculture to excise Afghanaid's name as the implementing partner in the proposal because otherwise it would fall foul of procurement laws interpreted to mean that agency submitting design could not also be awarded that project. Afghanaid was informed their proposal would have to be tendered if/when also approved by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN).
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| October 2006 | Afghanaid received notification that the Minstry of Agriculture had approved Afghanaid's proposal.
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| October 2006 | Afghanaid and other NGOs were requested to survey, design and submit cash for work infrastructure projects as a drought relief response in CNTF format by the MRRD with the understanding that if approved, these projects would be implemented by the NGOs who submitted the proposal.* Later NGOs were informed that their designs would have to be tendered to contracting companies.
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| January 2007 | Afghanaid submits expanded text to Dr Abdul Rahman of the MCN in response to comments from an external reviewer.
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| February 2007 | Afghanaid participates in meeting where MCN throws doubt on Ministry of Agriculture "ownership" (endorsement) of the project and requests further reviews/assurances in spite of the fact that the Ministry of Agriculture approved/submitted the proposal in October 2006.
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| March 2007 | Afghanaid submits revised expanded text in response to other comments from Dr Fazel of the Ministry of Agriculture Extension Department.
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| April 2007 | Afghanaid submits revised budget to Mr Nader of the MCN.
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| * NOTE: Submissions requested by MRRD were separate from the proposal for rural livelihoods that is the subject of the rest of this chart.
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1 October 2007
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Supplementary memorandum submitted by Afghanaid
I thought you might be interested to see a note which I asked
Afghanaid's Director of Human Resources to prepare in response
to some of the detailed questions you raised with me and others
when we appeared before the International Development Committee
on 15 November.
I have also passed this note on to the British and Irish
Afghanistan Agencies Group which is sending some further information
to the IDC on a range of questions discussed that day.
The Afghanaid information shows the extent to which we as
an NGO are suffering from a loss of staff to other employers,
particularly the UN agencies and in some cases to government itself
According to our statistics, we have had a 33% turnover of staff
over the past two years. In some fields, like engineering and
accountancy, recruitment and retention problems are particularly
acute.
As to whether we employ teachers in particular, and in so
doing take them away vocational employment in government schools,
the answer is that we do not in general employ teachers, though
government regulations on this matter vary from province to province.
Though this information is only about Afghanaid, our Kabul
staff find that other NGOs complain of similar difficulties, and
I hope you will find this snapshot from our experience helpful
in answering the kind of concerns which you raised.
David Page
Chair of Trustees
AFGHANAID NOTE ON RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF STAFF—A
RESPONSE TO THE QUESTIONS OF ANN MCKECHIN MP ON THESE ISSUES
BY MUHAMMAD
HYDER WAHIDI—AFGHANAID
DIRECTOR OF
ADMINISTRATION AND
HUMAN RESOURCES
1. Do you run any projects that help to improve capacity
of Government personnel?
Afghanaid invites employees from the provincial and district
agriculture departments to attend normal training sessions and
field days to enhance their expertise and experiences. Afghanaid
has established a regular consultation process with the local
agriculture departments. In addition, the local agriculture departments
have agreed to give us counterparts in Baharak, Keshem and Faizabad
in Badakhshan (BDK) Province. As a result of this approach the
local agriculture department employees will work from two to three
years directly with Afghanaid.
In addition, Afghanaid aims to liaise with the government
veterinary department in our Brooke projects in BDK.
Likewise, Afghanaid trains for one- year government employees
in NSP. For example, two persons (mostly a couple) work in each
NSP district on Cycle 2+ projects.
Training of the government employee will significantly enhance
their confidence, self-interest in the job, loyalty, commitment,
expertise, skills and experience. Afghanaid aims to train the
government employees to excel at their performance to enable them
to meet the upcoming challenges successfully. The training will
also encourage career progression.
The training will also promote genuine coordination, communication
and information sharing between NGOs and the government departments.
2. Is there any movement of staff from NGOs to Government
or State sector?
Since 2003 when we moved our headquarters from Peshawar to
Kabul some of our staff have moved from Afghanaid to state sector
in the provinces and in the capital. These staff have joined ministry
of agriculture and MRRD/NSP.
Please note that most of our colleagues especially our engineers
have joined UNOPS. Others have been hired by World Bank and USAID
funded projects due to higher salaries.
3. Are you facing any difficulty in the recruitment of
staff?
We have faced great recruitment difficulties:
Firstly, it is hard to find experienced and qualified staff
in the provinces where we work. Therefore, we have to hire staff
from other provinces and from Kabul. For instance, we cannot managers,
engineers, accountants and IT staff in the provinces where we
work. We have to hire them from Kabul and send them to our work
areas.
Secondly, retention is a major issue. For instance, the out
of province staff do not stay longer in the provinces due to family,
security and travelling reasons. Moreover, our working areas are
very remote and difficult, with very limited facilities. However,
we are trying our best to provide the basic living and working
conditions for our colleagues in the provinces where we work.
Recruitment of "out of province" female staff to
work in provinces is a difficult matter. This problem is very
high in Ghor and Nuristan.
4. Other comments that you wish to make in light of Ann
McKechin's questions
Afghanaid has greatly suffered from staff turnover over the
past five years. We have lost a considerable number of committed,
competent, experienced and qualified personnel due to higher salaries
paid mostly by UN, international organizations and USAID funded
projects. The situation got worse when our headquarters was moved
from Peshawar to Kabul in 2003 because quality development staff
are scarce in Afghanistan and the competition for them is intense.
In order to tackle the staff turnover issue in a reasonable
manner, Afghanaid is investing in training and development of
the existing and newly recruited staff in order to create adaptable
and qualified staff to meet the upcoming challenges. Moreover,
we hire and train volunteers on a regular basis. These volunteers
can easily find jobs in the NGOs, UN and government offices.
Despite being a long established NGO, Afghanaid can't compete
in terms of salaries with those paid by USAID funded projects,
UN and other international organizations. We attempt, however,
to provide other attractions to retain staff, such as high-quality
training, a good working environment and other non- material benefits,
as a means of reducing staff turnover.
Our analysis of the overall staff turnover since June 2005
indicates that we lost approximately 33% of our establishment
during this period and illustrates very well the recruitment and
retention issues we face.
5. Recruitment of Teachers
The table below shows the different positions on hiring teachers
of local govt authorities in the provinces where we work. Our
provincial managers do not generally support the hiring of teachers.
| S/n | Province | Government position on hiring teachers
| AAD practice on hiring teachers |
Position of AAD Provincial Program Managers
|
| 01. | Badakhshan | So far provincial office has not received any letter "not" to hire teachers.
| AAD has hired some teachers. | Not to hire teachers.
|
| 02. | Samangan | Government has issued a ban on hiring teachers.
| A few teachers were hired after obtaining written agreement from the education department.
| Not to hire teachers, especially any female teachers.
|
| 03. | Ghor | Government has issued a ban on hiring teachers.
| A few teachers were hired after obtaining written agreement from the education department.
| Not to hire teachers. |
6. General comments
|
| | | |
1. I think the NGOs are not to be blamed for "poaching"
qualified personnel from government. The NGOs are themselves suffering
from losing qualified staff to high salary paid organizations.
2. We try to keep Afghanaid salary and benefits more
or less compatible with the average salary rates within the NGO
community—as we have been doing for the past 20 years.
3. I personally believe payment of extremely large salaries
by certain organizations does spoil the local recruitment market.
January 2008
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