Strengthening Political Entities and Civil Society (SPECS)

I. Overview USAID/Afghanistan plans to release a Request for Applications for a new program to address critical needs in elections and political processes. The program will start in 2013 and end in 2016 in order to contribute to credible, transparent, and inclusive elections in 2014 and 2015. The program will involve the strengthening of political entities – including parties, independent candidates, and coalitions – to develop and articulate platforms, perform outreach within their communities, and compete in elections. The project will enhance the ability of political entities to attract and empower women and youth both as voters and as party leaders. The program will also work with local domestic monitoring organizations to train and deploy observers to monitor the elections. II. Programs Description: The proposed program will build on USG efforts to strengthen competitive, inclusive and credible electoral and political processes. In the pre-election period, this program will provide the foundation for credible and transparent elections in 2014 and 2015 by supporting political participation and strengthening political stakeholders’ abilities to organize, attract supporters, and institutionalize planning for future election events. In the elections period, the project will, domestic election and polling agent monitoring program. Proposed project components may include the following: A. Strengthening Political Entities and Civil Society (SPECS) I. Reinforce the principles of political participation and accountability1. Strengthen the capacity of political entities 2. Promote civil society’s enhanced participation in political processes 3. Increase democratic participation of Afghan citizens, particularly youth and women 4. Support the development of political party platforms5. Provide training on constituency outreach 6. Support capacity development programs for registered political parties7. Provide campaign training to independent candidates8. Support the increased participation of women candidates through education internal and external education programsII. Domestic Election Monitoring1. Support the training of domestic monitors2. Support the development and implementation of plans to monitoring election activities3. Provide organizational and administrative management training for domestic monitoring organizationsThe program will be implemented in accordance with USAID’s Political Party Assistance Policy, which can be found at http://transition.usaid.gov/policy/ads/200/200maz.pdf