AFGHANISTAN: Improving Transparency and Accountability of PPPs

Crowding in private sector investment is a key strategic goal and a development priority for the Government of Afghanistan, and this is possible only when the Government is perceived by the private sector as well as the public to be transparent, predictable, and accountable. Hence the objective of this activity was to enable the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's Central Partnerships Unit to assess the status of PPP disclosure and practices in the jurisdiction and to identify customized PPP disclosure solutions to facilitate transparency and accountability of PPPs.

At the end of this activity, a disclosure diagnostic was completed, and a detailed and customized Framework for Disclosure was created to facilitate lifecycle disclosure of PPP data. The Government, through PPIAF support, has developed and embedded disclosure in routine PPP processes and practice by creating the PPP disclosure framework and portal, which were both developed through PPIAF support. As of March 2021, the PPP disclosure portal for Afghanistan has 17 PPP projects published using the standard provided in the Government's disclosure framework, and more are being uploaded.

As a next step, the Government will continue routine disclosure of PPP information throughout the project lifecycle while linking the database to contract management.