Kabul City Initiative (KCI) Monthly Report: May 2013

The program's primary goal is to increase the capacity of city officials in Kabul, improve the delivery of municipal services to citizens, and enhance municipal capacity to generate revenue and account for expenditures and revenue. KCI's objectives are multifaceted, focusing on increasing the capacity of city officials, improving service delivery, and enhancing municipal revenue generation and expenditure management. To achieve these objectives, KCI provides technical assistance to KM, including training programs, infrastructure development, and capacity-building initiatives. During May 2013, KCI accomplished several key milestones. The third round of the Advanced Future Leaders Program for KM staff was completed, and the Clean and Green Campaign in Kabul schools continued for the second school term. KCI also provided plans, documents, software, and training materials to RAMP-UP West to enable them to replicate the Public Information and Relations Center (PIRC) in four major municipalities in Western Afghanistan. In addition, KCI continued training Greenery Department staff on the installation of playground equipment in remaining parks and provided training on topographical surveying to upgrade the municipality staff's capacity to calculate dimensions and terrain characteristics data needed to maintain parks and other infrastructure. Furthermore, the number of municipal records digitized and entered into Kabul Municipality's database increased to 114,240. CLIN 3 completed its assignment and provided training on "Financial Management and Financial Narrative Report Writing" for 13 KM district managers. Following the completion of CLIN 3 activities, KCI's management analyst section will continue providing mentoring as necessary to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities to Kabul Municipality. The KCI program is implemented by Tetra Tech, with key personnel including Bradley Baxter, Chief of Party, George M. White, Deputy Chief of Party – Technical, Joanne Adams, Senior Technical Advisor/Manager, and Seth Eden, Project Manager. The program's progress is monitored and reported on a monthly basis to ensure that project benchmarks are met and any implementation issues are addressed in a timely manner.