Improving Coordination Among Government Ministries in Afghanistan

Good coordination is essential to the operations of government, businesses and not-for-profit organisations.

A lack of effective coordination increases a venture’s operational costs and creates a competitive, rather than cooperative environment.

In Afghanistan, the effect of ineffective coordination is seen in development initiatives that are frequently misaligned with the capacity of the state budget, and inter-ministerial activities that are either duplicated or improperly organised.

As a result of poor coordination between responsible parties, cross-cutting areas such as environment, infrastructure, gender and institutional capacity building are insufficiently addressed.

Bilateral agreements and strategic partnerships signed with other countries are also poorly implemented due to ineffective cooperation between Afghanistan’s ministries.

The purpose of this brief is to reflect on the main challenges and obstacles caused by inadequate coordination and cooperation between the government ministries of Afghanistan and to propose solutions to mitigate these challenges.