Muhammad Yunus Nawandish
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Muhammad Yunus Nawandish ( Uzbek/) was the
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
from after his appointment by Afghan President
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...
in January 2010. During his time in office the Mayor initiated an aggressive program of municipal improvements in streets, parks, greenery, revenue collection, environmental control, and solid waste management. He was assisted in his municipal reform efforts by the USAID's “Kabul City Initiative” project, the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, Japanese Government JICA and other International Donors to build municipal capacity, improve service delivery and infrastructure, and increase municipal revenue for a cleaner and greener Kabul. Nawandish also serves as a member of the Kabul Polytechnic University’s Academic Council and of
Kabul University Kabul University (KU; ) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd District of the capital Kabul near the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded in 1931 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah, wh ...
. He is a member of two non – governmental organizations: the Afghanistan Engineers and Architects Association and Afghan American Engineers Union. Nawandish is also current president of Society of Afghan Architects and Engineers (SAAE). Nawandish was reluctant to be the mayor of Kabul at first due to its difficulty. His day begins at five in the morning and usually ends at about one the following morning. He is a compulsive walker, sometimes covering as much as 10 km (six miles) a day. The mayor is known to be a night bird. He often inspects Kabul's streets at night when residents of the city are fast asleep. Mr Nawandish has succeeded in generating millions of dollars more revenue for Kabul during his tenure - mainly from retail taxes, business taxes, advertisements and property and business taxes. He also has regular visits to Washington, Moscow and Istanbul. One of the mayor's top objectives now is his ongoing campaign to remove illegal shops, buildings and illegally parked carts from the city's streets and pavements.


Early years

Muhammad Yunus Nawandish has thirty years of experience in the oil, gas and power sectors in Afghanistan. He served as Manager of the Afghan Gas Refinery Department, Ministry of Mines and Industry (MMI) from 1979 – 1981; as Adviser in
Ministry of foreign affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
from 1984 – 1988; as Petroleum Engineer (MMI) from 1989 – 1992; and as Professor of Engineering at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan from 1992 – 1994. During the Taliban regime (1998 – 2001) the Mayor lived outside Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Deputy Minister of Water and Energy. Since 2005 he managed new construction and rehabilitation projects in the generation, transmission and distribution of energy in a conflict environment. He designed the largest power sector project in Afghanistan, the Northern Transmission System which provides power to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan. On behalf of the Afghan Government, he has coordinated over $500 million in power sector projects in cooperation with the
Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...
,
USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...
, the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, The World Bank, and the Governments of India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and South Korea. He has worked as a senior advisor on the U.S. Agency for International Development funded project to rehabilitate the Sheberghan gas fields.


Personal life and education

Muhammad Yunus Nawandish holds a B.S in Petroleum Engineering from Polytechnical University of Kabul and a M.S in Gas Production and Distribution Specialty from
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. He is married and has 6 children.


Achievements and awards

The Mayor of Kabul was invited to the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) as a special guest in 2011. He is the first public participation gold medalist in Afghanistan that was awarded by the Citizens in Kabul.
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...
hailed Mayor Nawandish as "The can-do mayor of Kabul: Some see a model for a modern Afghanistan politician". He has also been dubbed as the "Builder of Kabul". In 2012 Muhammad Yunus Nawandish was selected for 16 best mayors of the world by
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (, abbreviated IHEID), commonly referred to as Geneva Graduate Institute, is a graduate-level research university in Geneva, Switzerland dedicated to international relations, dev ...
in
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, and he has been chosen for top 5 mayors among all 16 mayors of the other countries.


Mayoral highlights

Gets foreign donors to pay for everything from solar-powered streetlights and public toilets to bus networks and overpasses. They build it, he names it. Has brought high-level pothole politics to this previously ungovernable, bombed-out city. With hardly any tax revenues, he has found something useful to say to the city's hundreds of aid agencies: “Build me something that will last 10 years.”


References


External links

* https://blogs.worldbank.org/category/tags/mayor-nawandish * http://www.ecocity-2013.com/en/mohammad-yunus-nawandish/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4Z4aGwlWiLw1sZzN3nIkQ {{DEFAULTSORT:Nawandish, Muhammad Yunus Mayors of Kabul Afghan Uzbek politicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Mayors of places in Afghanistan Kabul Polytechnic University alumni