The single most important achievement to date is the creation of mechanisms for local governance and decision making. The community empowerment that has taken place manifests itself through the rapid absorption of NSP funding and the mobilization of additional resources. The broad-based introduction of an alternative decision making process at the lowest community level represents a form of government at its most basic form; one that the central government and the international community have envisioned for Afghanistan. The introduction of democratically elected community decision -making bodies as a viable alternative to the traditional local governance structure has provided a vehicle to re-build the social fabric and relationships at grassroots level