Providing People 40,000 Copies of Constitution Booklets

April - 03 - 2007 (Kabul)

Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), in a joint project with Counterpart International, for better awareness of people is providing 40,000 copies of the Afghan Constitution.

Copies of the Afghan constitution are printed by Counterpart International and its cost reaches to $112,000. These copies will be distributed by MRRD to all 24,000 Community Development Councils (CDC) in Afghanistan and to government offices all over the country.

According to Mr Asif Rahimi, Deputy Minister of the MRRD, ‘these constitution copies would be distributed along with copies of CDC By Law, approved by H.E President Karzai.  The new By Law establishes governance at the village level and in particular gives CDCs legal status to be in charge of all development projects at local level.  Workshops, seminars and trainings will be given throughout Afghanistan to inform all Afghans of the civil rights of the By Law.’

“Now every Afghan citizen can know their rights and will be able to take part in democracy and the civil society process in Afghanistan,” said Shehzad Mehmood, Counterpart Afghanistan Deputy Chief of Party.’’

In an event at the MRRD on 3 April, Counterpart International Chief Executive Officer,

Mr. Lelei LeLaulu, handed over the 40,000 copies of the constitution to MRRD Deputy Minister, Asif Rahimi.

Counterpart Afghanistan is implementing the I-PACS with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Through a nation-wide network of local partners, I-PACS provides capacity building training and technical assistance to hundreds of local Afghan civil society organisations, which helps these institutions provide critical services to their communities.