he NSP, funded by the World Bank and implemented across the country by a series of Afghan and international NGOs, is based on the establishment of Community Development Councils (CDCs) to oversee small-scale development grants. he CDCs were chosen through local election processes run by various international NGOs. hese councils were meant to ensure community input into how development funds were spent and to encourage transparency in both development and local governance. In some areas the funding for these projects has essentially ended, but in other places, CDCs are seen by NGOs as effective mechanisms for reaching local communities. As a result they have continued to receive funds from other sources or have established relationships with figures such as district governors.In areas where USIP has conducted research, CDCs have been reported as having both positive and negative effects on dispute resolution. he effects appear to be based primarily on the skill of the implementing NGO and the extent to which CDCs build upon local governance structures that were in place before the program arrived. In general, CDCs are not designed to resolve disputes, except when those disputes are related to specific development projects, but in some areas they have taken on this role. his was particularly true, among areas where USIP has conducted research, in Nangarhar province. Instances of CDCs becoming involved in dispute resolution have also been reported in Kandahar and other areas.91
This trend has been heightened by the fact that in some areas both NGOs and other international organizations have begun to use CDCs to distribute funds from other sources for projects not necessarily related to NSP directly. his has generally been done in an unsystematic manner, making the role of CDCs highly variable from area to area and often leaving communities with a poor understanding of the goals of the program. In some cases, this access to funds has increased the CDCs' political capital, making them more important actors in the local justice landscape and encouraging disputants to bring more cases to them. his can be a positive thing if a CDC has actually been chosen in a transparent manner and is fairly representative of the community. But since districtand village-level elections have not been held, the CDC election process has not been standardized, and different NGOs interact with CDCs in very different manners. In some cases this means that effective local dispute resolution mechanisms have been marginalized when skilled elders and reconcilers have not been selected for the CDCs. hese issues arise not just in the case of NSP-sponsored councils but also for multiple other councils that have been set up by NGOs or simply empowered by the influx of funds that they bring with them. While such funds might be strictly development oriented, international funders often do not consider how control of ne