VZCZCXRO9687
RR RUEHDBU RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #0581 0740511
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150511Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7740
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS KABUL 000581 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SRAP, SCA/FO, SCA/A, EUR/RPM 
STATE PASS TO AID FOR ASIA/SCAA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM AF
 
SUBJECT:  Afghanistan's First Female Mayor Could Use a Little Help 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Azra Jafari, Afghanistan's first female city mayor, is 
struggling to put together a functioning administration and win the 
support and approval of the people of Nili in Dai Kundi province 
without financial resources or experience in running a city. 
 
Mayor Jafari Lacks Resources 
---------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Azra Jafari was named mayor of Nili, the capital city of 
Dai Kundi province, in December 2008.  She is the only female mayor 
in Afghanistan.  Jafari has expressed frustration over the 
difficulty of establishing a viable city administration, given a 
severe lack of resources and uncertainty over numerous legal and 
technical aspects of running a municipality.  The lack of revenue is 
further magnified by a $220,000 USD debt inherited from the 
provincial government administration.  PRT Bamyan is working with 
UNAMA to explore ways to facilitate funneling additional U.S. and 
international community resources to Nili to buttress support for 
Jafari's mayorship.  UNAMA actively supports Jafari, but it has very 
limited resources of its own. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Dai Kundi's dismal provincial capital is little more than 
a dusty village.  There is no PRT in Dai Kundi Province.  The UNAMA 
Central Highlands Office, based in Bamyan, maintains a branch office 
in Nili, and the two offices are connected by regular UNAMA 
helicopter flights.  Jafari's office, a private home recently 
re-located for security reasons near the UNAMA Central Highlands' 
Dai Kundi Branch Office compound, is simply a set of tables and 
chairs; there are no computers, no filing cabinets, no office 
equipment or supplies except notebooks and pencils.  She has a 
six-person staff:  three salaried employees and three hourly 
employees.  While municipalities are allowed to collect revenues 
from the local population, Jafari is still struggling to put a 
collection system in place. 
 
Mayor's Wish List 
----------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) While the master plan has been drawn up, Jafari's office 
lacks the legal and technical expertise (not to mention the 
financial wherewithal) to implement it.  Long term plans include 
developing the area (one street) designated for government line 
ministry offices, at a minimum by paving the street and paving a 
short length of road where a new bazaar is to be located.  In the 
short-term, she would like to procure a water supply truck (so that 
people do not have to make multiple daily trips to distant water 
sources) and road maintenance equipment to keep Nili's battered 
roads passable.  Additional needs include basic office and 
communications equipment for the mayor's office and an expert to 
provide technical advice on running a city. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶5. (U) Even a limited injection of resources into Nili by the 
international community would go a long way in gaining local and 
national support for Jafari's appointment in one of Afghanistan's 
poorest provinces, and one of a few without a Provincial 
Reconstruction Team. 
 
WOOD