Perceptions of Integrity in Afghan aid is a survey conducted by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), which comprised 18 provinces and two samples. More the general population and decision makers related to the aid sector (local officials and employees of NGOs and international organizations) for a total of 3000 persons.

To demonstrate the perceptions of the Afghan population, our report follows a comprehensive framework in four stages; the project cycle, the funding cycle, political ecology, and accountability of aid. At the end of each section we highlight a number of observations and recommendations that our survey has brought to the fore.

The findings paint a complex picture of how the aid sector is perceived in Afghanistan, with both positive insights but also concerns. Although Afghans very much appreciate the role aid is playing in the development of their country, they are often confused about the means and ends of given projects nor their overall purpose. Respondents think that donors should channel their aid through the state. Afghans trust the state, want it to be more involved, and want to see its capacity built more.

The observations and recommendations of the analysis of our survey are as follows:

Observations

 - Only half of Afghans agree or strongly agree that they are involved in needs assessments.
 - Afghans trusted state institutions to get involved in the project cycle and wanted to see the state’s role expanded
 - Two-thirds of Afghans think that aid has brought some benefits regionally and nationally
 - The aid community is not thought to influence the security situation per se.
 - Afghans seems to beconcerned with improving aid providers’ transparency and not so concerned with aid workers’ lifestyle

Concerns

 - Donors are not making full use of state institutions to channel their aid.
 - Aid providers are not involving citizens enough, especially in rural areas, and moreover are not perceived to be involving them.
 - The aid community and the state currently have an ambivalent relationship towards one another competition between the two could be dangerous for the reconstruction process success.
 - Many Afghans think that too much money is being spent on democratisation and anti-narcotics and would like to see more spent on education.

Recommendations

 - Aid providers should focus on active communications strategies to identify themselves, their purpose, and their results. It is not enough for the program to entirely meet its goals, it must also be perceived to have done so.
 - Rural areas need to be more heavily involved in needs assessments.
 - Donors must align their priorities with those of their intended beneficiaries. Donors failing to be accountable to their beneficiaries create a serious threat to Afghanistan’s stability.
 - Work towards establish government’s and beneficiaries role and capacity for monitoring and evaluation of aid projects
 - Donors should funnel larger proportion of their aid through government institutions, even to the point of prioritizing capacity building over actual service delivery. Afghans want to see a proactive state.
 - The subcontracting should be limited as it threaten projects accountability.
 - Monitoring systems involving beneficiaries should be established on every project.
 - NGOs should make a greater effort to interact with state institutions, especially highly regarded local institutions such as CDCs.