Publication

This brief discusses the issue of conditional assistance and incentive programs as well as their impact on policy reform in Afghanistan. The author highlights that even though incentive programs are increasingly popular, donors have to consider 1) who benefits from them; 2) how resources and requests align; 3) Afghan’s capacity to implement reform; and 4) the consequences of success or failure. He contends that incentive programs are most likely to be effective if they are modest, linked to institutional capacity and working in conjunction with other policy options.