AIRD News
(Afghanistan Institute for Rural Development)

AIRD, in partnership with some international academic institutes of rural development, has been pursuing and facilitating a series of International Training Courses for MRRD core staff. Two programmes have already been conducted. The first one on Research Methodology for 11 days from 18th April to 5th May was attended by 25 individuals from entire MRRD programs (NSP, NADP, WatSIP, NRAP, and AREDP) including AIRD staff in the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad. India. This programme was supported by the Indian Embassy in Kabul.  The second International Training Course on Planning

for Sustainable Livelihood and Poverty Reduction which was also held at NIRD in India from 12th – 21st July 2010,in which 21 officers from MRRD participated. This course focused on the concept and approaches for sustainable rural development, participatory village micro- plans for sustainable rural livelihoods, social audit and participatory M&E. In the opinion of participants the workshop was really effective and will have significant impact in the MRRD programmes. The third programme on Monitoring and Evaluation will be held in September-October2010, again at NIRD. These two programmes are being supported by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

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AIRD is planning to extend the Capacity Development Program for social workers, extension officer, and LSGIs member to Badghias and Heart province. The objective of this programme is to improve self mobilization and self-reliance in the community through promoting role of LSGIs. The project is financially supported by the Spanish Government-AECID. In this connection, AIRD conducted the first training of ToT (Training of Trainees) for almost 26 social workers of Badghias and Herat provinces on 11 – 15 of July 2010 in Kabul, to improve teaching/training skill of district SWs, to professionally work and provide trainings for local shuras on

district and community level, as well as to identify training needs of SWs through TNA.

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AIRD has successfully completed second series of training courses on Peace Building, Conflict Resolution and Do-No-Harm in five target provinces (Baghlan, Takhar, Nangarhar, Jawzjan, and Samangan).Started since May 2010, almost 700 members of LSGIs and 100 Social Workers have been trained through the training. The training course mainly focused on practicing the culture of peace in their daily affairs, reducing violence from all aspects, and enabling the participants, and to support solidarity by providing assistance to community.