World Bank has prioritized and implemented the Citizen Charter National Priority Program (CCNPP) - community-driven development programs aiming to broadly encourage the local communities participate in planning and implementation of the community-driven development projects in Afghanistan. This paper aims to assess the major barriers affecting citizen’s participation in community-driven development projects in Afghanistan. Utilizing a qualitative approach, we have conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with local communities, elders of the community development councils and community development experts and practitioners, also we have used the Arnstein\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s model of participation in order to examine the current status of citizen participation in Herat City. The paper has found out that participation located in informing, consultation and in some places in placation rungs of citizen participation ladder. poverty; deinstitutionalized CDCs; low level of literacy; lack of volunteering culture; male-dominance; defects in CCNPP operational processes including limited time frame, predefined services, power-seeking facilitating partners, area selection and weak CDCs are among the major barriers to citizen participation in community-driven projects in Afghanistan.

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