Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

scale housing producers – the ‘peoples housingprocess’; (iii) support to research and developmentof appropriate building materials andtechnologies; (iv) upgrading the skills of contractorsand laborers; (v) supporting entrepreneursto upgrade or set up building componentsmanufacturing units; (vi) support to privatesector production, particularly of rentalhousing.Housing programs will consider the particularneeds of various groups such as civil servants,returnees, Kuchis, IDPs, widows and othervulnerable groups. Housing finance will beprovide – for purchase, rehabilitation, and constructionof new housing – through: integratinghousing finance; stimulating private banks toincrease mortgage lending to low-incomehouseholds, through, for example, mortgageguarantees; initiating community mortgageschemes; lowering mortgage interest rates; reducingcollateral and down payment requirements;introducing flexible repaymentschemes. This will enhance purchasing powerof urban inhabitants and attract private investmentin housing programs. This will leadto a system of affordable land and housing andassured cost recovery for the investors.Housing subsidy programs will be providedfor very low income households, includingboth owners and renters. The following optionswill be examined: direct loans to purchasean existing or construct a new house; governmentguarantees of loans made by private sectorlenders, thus enabling households to purchasehouses without a down payment; mutualself-help housing programs which makeshomes affordable to groups of households byvaluing to work, or "sweat equity", by eachhomeowner; portable rent subsidies that giveeligible households a choice about where tolive, including market rate rentals subsidiesdirectly to the property owner who then appliesthe subsidies to the rents that are chargedto low-income tenants.Urban Infrastructure and Services: A concertedeffort will be made to improve infrastructureincluding roads, footpaths, stormdrainage, water supply, electricity, street lights,sanitation, and solid waste collection. Socialinfrastructure will be improved, includingopen space, children’s’ parks, community andhealth centers, schools, and markets. Supportwill be provided to house construction and rehabilitation,but only in line with an approvedplan and with careful consideration given tolevels of cost recovery. Steps will be taken torehabilitate and extend water supply and sanitationservices, giving priority to rehabilitatingexisting areas to an adequate level of servicebefore extending service to new areas. Extensionsto new areas will be done in connectionwith an approved plan for new settlement development.Improve solid waste managementthrough waste minimization (reduce, reuse,and recycle) and improved collection, transportand transfer, and disposal alternatives. Considerationwill be given to privatization, communitymanagement, affordability and costrecovery. Improve urban transportation managementthrough improvements to circulationand road networks, transportation facilities andservices by function, type, capacity, and condition,bus system, bicycles and pedestrians,transportation demand management includingon- and off-street parking system management.The most significant heritage areas will beidentified and a detailed inventory of heritageassets will be undertaken. This will be done incoordination with NGOs already working onthe preservation of heritage areas. Conservationplans for each heritage area (rehabilitationand preservation) will be developed and implementedthrough efforts to raise publicawareness, economic incentives to privateowners, tourism development, legal protection,public investment, and outreach to internationalbodies.Key steps to improve and monitor progresswith urban development will include the identificationof indicators on which strategic, tactical,and operational decisions will be based; theestablishment of GIS and databases to manageinformation; and the improvement of analyticalroutines and creation of the creation of webbasedinformation systems. The priority focuswill be on the establishment of land informationand registration systems in municipalities.Expected OutcomesThe following outcomes are expected to beachieved in this Urban Sector Strategy in comingfive years:104Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)