OVERVIEW

K-SMNP contributes to the Government of Afghanistan's Urban National Priority Program (U-NPP) and the government's reform agenda for urban areas.

The program improves stability and stimulates economic development in the city of Kabul through securing land rights, local action planning, enhanced service delivery and strengthening the social contract between citizens and their government.

K-SMNP helps the Municipality of Kabul survey and register all properties within its municipal boundaries (estimated at 426,000 properties). A systematic survey is conducted on each property and the property data is stored at the Nahia (urban district) level, as well as in a central municipal database. This enables the municipality to improve its property records for Safayi (municipal service charges) and significantly expand its revenue. It will also enable the Afghanistan Independent Land Authority to register properties and issue land occupation certificates to increase tenure security and reduce land grabbing.

By 2020, the program will improve the living conditions of close to three million Afghan men, women, and children in 330,000 households through public investments in service delivery and basic infrastructure, local economic development, job creation and land tenure security.

ACTIVITIES

• Conduct a city-wide property survey, registration and numbering of houses.
• Technical assistance to Nahia offices to strengthen municipal finance and revenue collection systems.
• Support strategic urban planning for local economic development and inclusive service delivery.
• Implement service and infrastructure projects in line with Nahia strategic plans to stimulate local economic development.
• Establish representative Gozar (neighborhood) assemblies to foster improved municipal-citizen relations in land management and service delivery, in order to build a sense of civic responsibility and government legitimacy.
• Strengthen policies and institutional capacities for land management, strategic urban planning, and inclusive municipal governance.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Passage of a Land Management Law which allows the distribution of Occupancy Certificates, mitigating property disputes.
• Completed property surveys in 17 Kabul districts.
• Standardization of Gozar neighborhood boundaries, and establishment of Gozar assemblies in Kabul districts.
• Developed a land value assessment methodology and piloted this assessment in all 22 districts in Kabul in 2017. This process produced up-to-date land value zoning maps and Safayi tables for each Nahia in the city, which provides a fairer process for determining utility charges for residents and businesses, and increase municipal revenues.
• Developed guidelines for Safayi invoicing and collection, and for property valuation. Incorporated the guidelines into a municipal finance and governance manual.
• Coding and property numbering for 17 Kabul districts to create more accurate street addresses.