Speaker: Col. Donald Dixon, Commander of the Canadian Strategic Advisory Team for Afghanistan

The Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) is approaching two years of service aiding the President of Afghanistan. SAT consists of sixteen men and women who have an average time in service of 21 years and come from very diverse backgrounds. Their main objective is initially to get themselves oriented to the situation in Afghan. SAT is not part of the war on terror, and is not involved with the 2500 Canadian service-people engaged in fighting the Taliban. In fact, SAT is present in the country at the request and convenience of the President of Afghanistan.

From a Canadian perspective there are also two other main channels: Diplomacy (through the ambassador) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) which has invested US $500m into Afghanistan over the last 5 years. But the roles of the three actors are different. The Ambassador interacts with other diplomats, participates in the policy action group and in international fora. He also provides advice or guidance to the president if it is sought. CIDA behaves much like a project management organisation, offering expertise for various initiatives. However, it should be realised that money goes through a central Afghan fund so that no one country is responsible for any particular project.

Most specifically, SAT contributes at the ministerial level and is directly involved in twelve portfolios, nine of which are ministerial in orientation. It aims to provide consistency and coherency. To achieve these aims, SAT needed a model, a consistent approach for each member of the team to interact with the various departments and ministers. Each ministry needed to come up with a mission statement of achievable goals and objectives that are consistent with the Afghan Compact. This has helped to avoid the phenomenon of NGOs passing on projects to ministers without consultation or follow up. With the aim to bring up people and enhance their development, SAT also encourages ministers and the chairmen of the various portfolios to look at their own people in the ministries to see which people in the organisation can be brought up in various secretariats. SAT has encouraged Afghan leaders to be disciplined in their approach, to make decisions regularly, to accept the consequences of each decision, and to let a decision run its course rather than changing their position every week.

As is well known, the situation in Afghanistan remains somewhat tumultuous. Colleagues of SAT such as ministry members and the president are all major targets. Therefore, SAT staff does not wear uniforms in order to allow them to move throughout the country. This also helps to avoid bringing undue attention to ministry officials who might be travelling with SAT. Nevertheless, every member of SAT has almost been a victim of collateral damage from attacks on other targets. Thus they have developed a common modus operandus: to avoid being seen, recognised or identified.

SAT meets with ministers every two to four weeks to ensure that they are providing the services expected from them. Afghan success does not lie in Kabul. Looking at the strategic level, SAT is encouraging ministers to move out into the provinces and develop relationships with provincial governors, provincial development committees, and elected development councils. This not only provides good situational awareness but also demonstrates to local people and communities that the government is actively involved in their issues, rather than simply sitting in Kabul making decisions. It is particularly important to get feedback and achieve discourse.

One of most successful ministries today is the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) headed by Minister Mohammad Ehsan Zia. Of 960 projects, 230 have so far come to fruition, including 'work for food' and 'work for money' initiatives, provision of money to contractors, and successful outsourcing. Thanks to the ministry, village and community people see schools, roads and bridges being built. He is also part of the National Solidarity Program (NSP) which touches the hearts and minds of people in Afghanistan, and commands large financial resources.

Billions and billions of dollars are going into Afghanistan and there is a large coalition of well-intentioned people wanting the country to succeed. In fact, there are 60 nations helping this country, 47 other independent entities participating in the process, a total of 107 voices speaking to the Chief Economic Advisor of ANDS. Unfortunately, in doing so, the international community has created a tremendous amount of confusion because the leader has 107 voices whispering in his ear, without counting members of the upper and lower houses and the 25 cabinet ministers.

There are many successes in Afghanistan. One example is the Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation which this year developed a plan to identify 50 air access routes for international couriers. However, the Ministry's experience also highlights another problem in Afghanistan. For last year the ministry received US $97 million but spent only US $5m - they did not have enough human horsepower to spend the rest of the money.

To achieve a Strategic Communication Platform, the President decided to create a national communication and coordination centre. This has proven to be very effective since December. SAT has achieved this objective in conjunction with the MRRD, Ministry of Education, and Independent Administrative Reforms of the Civil Service.

The international community demands a lot from the Afghans, but itself has tremendous responsibility. The international community pledged they would redevelop and solidify the Justice sector. This has not been achieved. The Afghan National Police Force has been another failure. Police chiefs and rank-and-file have not been certified; there is no centralised police training either. In addition, police chiefs are taken from one province and posted in another. Concerning the rank-and-file, no background checks were conducted; their identities were not confirmed. Moreover, poppy growth is supposed to be eradicated. Statistically the situation has never been worse. The failure of the Afghan people reflects the failure of the international community.

Elected men and women and Afghan officials, are frequent visitors to the SAT. They unanimously suggest that if basic amenities such as roads, bridges, electricity, schools, sanitation and water, were provided by the international community, the mission will succeed. Afghanistan needs agriculture, roads, transportation and irrigation - the development of which is being pressed by President Karzai onto his ministers.

From a military perspective, the 'centre of gravity' in Afghanistan (with respect to the mission) is the Taliban, development and infrastructure. However, the actual centre of gravity is the people of Afghanistan. Everything else is secondary. The various missions need to understand and embrace what the elders and mullahs think and say. President Karzai and other leaders agree that at the village level, locals listen to the elders and mullahs. SAT also engages with mullahs and elders.


Discussion

System of Governance

The international mission in Afghanistan is trying to achieve three things: a) build a Republican style government, something unfamiliar in Afghanistan, b) regenerate the physical infrastructure decimated during the last 30 years of constant warfare, and c) trying to build human resources.

The Government was established as a result of the Bonn Conference, and the development of the constitution and election of the government, executive branch is run by the president, very much in republican style, relatively effective. The Parliament, however, is fairly embryonic and juvenile. It is not very old; there is no effective party political structure; there are 350 independent voices and strategies. In addition, the Legislative side has not developed satisfactorily. After 5 years of 'peace and stability,' the international community has high expectations of progress towards a 'Western' style state.

Historically, Kabul has not exercised much authority outside the city. The provinces (warlords) have in fact frequently deposed the leadership in Kabul for various reasons. Therefore, the nation's capital has been a capital only in name. At the provincial level, NSP run by the MRRD has been a most successful programme. It created Community Development Councils (CDCs), which govern at the lowest level. There are 38,000 villages in Afghanistan; NSP plans to create 24,000 CDCs in these villages. So far, 12,000 have been created. Only the four southern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar and Zabul have not been successfully developed. NSP programmes are facilitated by International organizations and NGOs. They are trying to train local communities to engage in the political process. A democratic process is slowly replacing the traditional leadership style by introducing women and electing people. Money is not an important factor in this regard. What is important is the empowerment local communities receive. The people make their own development plans.

The aim is to link up the CDCs with District-level development plans and the latter in turn with Provincial-level development plans. Finally, the result aimed at is to hopefully form a National-level development plan. Unfortunately, at present there is a very weak link between the federal government and the CDCs. Provincial reconstruction teams are attempting to reduce this gap by assisting the presidentially appointed provincial governor in bringing national programs and ministries from the federal level down to the provincial levels.

International Funding

The international community needs to be very careful about how money goes into the country. Ministers would prefer to receive the money directly through the Central Government. It would be helpful if development agencies revealed their plans to government ministers. The attitude among some foreigners is that the Government does not know where it is going and needs to follow specific outside prescriptions. Afghans do not consider their country to be a welfare state. They do want benevolence and hope someday to repay it. They do not want ethnocentric ideals; instead, they want programmes with an Afghan face.

International money has to be complemented by local investment and money. For example, NSP money is given to the Central Government and then distributed to the local levels. Large billboards saying that 'Canada did this project' send a bad message to local people who actually contributed to projects themselves.

Civil Service

The Civil Service has 300,000 people but has a legacy of many things including nepotism. To overcome this is a Herculean challenge. There are eight levels in the Civil Service. Civil Service personnel have come to India and will be coming to Canada and the USA to look at (and learn from) foreign systems. This is a slow process; however, there is optimism. For the first time in many years there is a Chairman's Mission Statement with goals and objectives, and he is bringing directors up from the provinces to the national level. He has expressed that he will not accept incompetent officials.

SAT's Capacity Building Enterprise

SAT tries to be apolitical. It does not get involved in controversies such as amnesty legislation. It is not involved with political parties or with the security sector. They work with the executive branch, exclusively. Hence, they have no intelligence role. They are in Afghanistan to serve the Afghan President and people. The long-term aim is to ensure the indigenous population can take over all duties. However, it is an incredibly difficult task. Minister Zia stated that he is not working for people that are 15 years of age and older, because they have already missed their opportunity for education. The average teacher has two years more education than the children they are teaching. The education system has to be built from the ground-up. Development is about building human capacity as well as bricks and mortar. It might take ten years to train a teacher, and this would be just one component of the development effort.