KABUL CITY INITIATIVE 2013 Resident Survey REPORT OF RESULTS

Most residents live in informal or unplanned settlements that lack basic infrastructure or access to utilities such as water, electricity, drainage, roads, and sidewalks. The Municipality faces significant service delivery challenges, and is making progress. The USAID Kabul City Initiative (KCI) is working as a partner in that progress. The USAID Kabul City Initiative provides technical and material support to Kabul Municipality to improve the capacity of Kabul officials, managers, and technicians to perform their core municipal management responsibilities, to improve service delivery in the municipality, and to improve the collection and management of municipal revenues. To help identify service needs and track KCI progress, an annual survey of residents has been implemented in each of the three years of the KCI. In January 2011, a baseline survey of 2,200 Kabul residents was implemented by trained and supervised Afghan interviewers who administered the approximate hour-long survey door to door. The questionnaire was constructed to elicit resident perspectives about the quality of life and services, level of trust of government in Kabul, and service needs and willingness to pay for service upgrades. Results have been used to concentrate improvement efforts in the areas of greatest need according to the opinions of Kabul residents themselves. Another objective of the survey has been to test the extent to which improvement efforts have addressed resident needs and improved resident opinion about the city. With significant cuts to the KCI budget in the first year of the project, KCI has not been able to implement the magnitude of programming that might positively affect public opinion and be reflected in public opinion surveys. In January 2012 and January 2013, this survey effort was repeated using the same survey instrument, sampling, and implementation methodologies, though conditions on the ground sometimes required modifications to the planned methods and these may have influenced findings. This third survey showed significant decreases in public opinion of the municipality and city service delivery. This is likely due to the variances in demographics in Kabul, a city in flux, with individuals and families moving in response to changing security issues within the city and the movement of displaced persons, and to changes in how the questions were asked. Additionally, the household selection methodology changed for the January 2013 survey. The January 2013 survey echoed the findings from the previous years, in that the City of Kabul and many of its districts continued to be in a state of change. In the City overall, significant variances in demographics were observed, particularly in outlying districts such as Districts 11, 13, 18, 20, 21, and 22, but also in 1 and 9. In all of Kabul, the overall average household size increased from 7 people per household in January 2011 to 10 in January 2013, a rather dramatic increase. The average age dropped from 36 in January 2011 to 34 in January 2012 and 33 in January 2013. The average length of residency in Kabul dropped from 25 years in January 2011 to 22 in January 2012 and 20 in January 2013. Across the city, the overall average annual household income fell from 13,600 AFN in January 2012 to 12,400 in January 2013, but remained above the January 2011 level of 10,800. Average incomes fell by 20% or more from January 2011 to January 2013 in Districts 2, 14, and 18, but rose by more than 50% in Districts 8, 13, 15, 21, and 22. Fewer women with education were interviewed in January 2013; 56% had no schooling compared to 46% in January 2011. Fewer Pashtuns were interviewed in January 2013 (24% of all interviews, compared to 29% in January 2012) and fewer Hazara (10%, compared to 15%) and minority groups were also underrepresented in the January 2013 survey.