Benchmarks

On June 10, 2008 Canada announced six priorities and three signature projects that it will be implementing in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2011, in order to bring measurable improvement to the lives of Afghans, and in particular to residents of Kandahar province.

To support these priorities and projects, the Government of Canada has identified a number of benchmarks and progress indicators that will help to:

• gauge levels of progress being achieved, or not, as the case may be;
• identify if and when adjustments to its approach are required, given the complex environment; and,
• report results frankly to Canadians.

Click to view the priorities and their associated benchmarks, progress indicators and results to date:

• Training and Mentoring Afghan National Security Forces
• Basic Services
• Humanitarian Assistance
• Border Security and Dialogue
• Democratic Development and National Institutions
• Political Reconciliation

Benchmarking in Afghanistan is a difficult task with reporting dependent on gathering information while operating in a conflict zone. Many of the benchmarks are clearly defined, but some are still being refined. Where programming is relatively new, for example, indicators are still being developed and baselines or targets have not yet been set. These will all be regularly reviewed and adapted.

Canada alone does not control the outcomes of its objectives. They are dependent on the efforts of the Afghan government and the international community. Therefore, the benchmarks are consistent with those already established by the Government of Afghanistan and its partners in the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and have been confirmed through consultation with the Afghan government.

Benchmarking means different things to different people. For Canada’s purposes, benchmarks are how the Government will report to Canadians against its objectives.

• Benchmarks are reference points that help assess progress in specific priority areas. The benchmarks are in some cases quantitative, providing numerical targets, and in other cases qualitative, for instance gauging public perception or assessing the implementation of policies and programs.
• Progress indicators provide more specific information on how work is proceeding against those reference points.The challenge with progress indicators is in the ability to regularly report against them on a quarterly basis.
• Baselines refer to the current status ofdevelopments associated withtheprogress indicators, are a fixed point and will not change over time.
• Targets are the level of progress which we hope to achieve by 2011.
• Quarterly results are updates on how work proceeded over the three-month period covered by the report towards achieving the 2011 targets for each of the progress indicators, though progress may not always be evident or measurable on a quarterly basis.

The development of these benchmarks, and regular reporting against them in quarterly reports, is part of the Government’s overall commitment to increase accountability and transparency.