SIKA-West Weekly Bullet Points No. 132: Oct 21-27, 2014

Once completed, the road will support 1,968 families from Shor Abad and neighboring communities to have easier access to Farah Provincial Center. Preparations are underway to organize a Western DRRD Directors Conference in Kabul on November 10th and 11th. The conference will review past MRRD-led programming under SIKA-West and consider transitional programming goals as the SIKA-West program comes to an end next year. The Herat DRRD NABDP successfully organized a District Development Assembly (DDA) re-election in Guzara District, Herat Province, with over 500 district CDC members gathering to elect 30 new DDA members. Five grant-funded projects have been identified and approved by the District Governments and Komite Sobate Woleswali's in Pashtun Zarghun, Kohsan, and Qadis Districts. These projects, which include road rehabilitation and flood protection measures, are designed to improve communities' access to district centers and protect their farmland, homes, and businesses from seasonal flooding. The Ghor Provincial Government Office will be using a computerized database to register and process received petitions, with technical support and mentoring provided by database technicians. To date, 375 grant-funded projects valued at USD $9,069,916 have been identified and approved by MRRD and IDLG in the target districts. CDCs and DDAs are implementing 119 projects valued at USD $3,969,591, while 233 projects valued at USD $4,130,050 have been completed. Sixteen projects valued at USD $788,518 are pending with the Vetting Unit for action. Twenty-six CDC milestone payments totaling USD $192,409 have been disbursed in various districts, supporting a variety of IDLG and MRRD-led grant-funded solutions to community grievances. In-line with the IDLG District Governance Training Plan, a 'General Administration' workshop was conducted in Chaghcharan for 42 government personnel, covering administration guidelines, human resource management, and performance management. The Lash Wa Juwayn District Agricultural Department organized an "Open House" for district farmers and used this opportunity to respond to farmers' concerns, distributing vaccinations from government stocks in response to an outbreak of livestock diseases. The Shahrak District Population Registration Department provided National Identity Cards to 30 eligible children, enabling them to register with the Education Department and attend school.