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Abstract

Following good urban governance practices and realizing sustainable urbanization goals are major development challenges experienced in most developing countries. This challenge is even more acute in the post-conflict and transition countries. This article on Kabul illustrates this point and presents some of the key governance challenges faced by the city, such as: phenomenal rate of population growth; a large proportion of the city being informally developed; massive damage to the city infrastructure; poor service levels; and weak institutions unable to deal with the present challenge of reconstructing and developing the city. The article also identifies some of the critical steps to be taken for sustainable urban development, which are: (i) enactment of the revised Municipal Law of Afghanistan; (ii) clarification of the institutional authority and responsibilities of the concerned organization; (iii) resolving municipal boundary and overlapping spatial jurisdiction issues; (iv) holding local government elections; (v) estab-lishing a more decentralized local governance framework; (vi) finalization and approval of the Kabul City Master Plan; (vii) strengthening the municipal revenue enhancement programme; (viii) implementing a comprehensive human resource development programme at Kabul municipality; (ix) institutionalizing by law active public participation in local governance and management; (x) formulating a city-level strat-egy and action plan for informal settlement regularization and upgrading; (xi) setting up an effective inter-agency city development coordination mechanism led by the Mayor of Kabul; and (xii) establishing an appropriate metropolitan area development coordination body.

Keywords

Urban governance post-conflict cities Kabul Afghanistan governance reforms

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The Challenge of Governing a Post-Conflict City

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