House Magazine Article: Building a Nation by Nightfall

Speech by Malcolm Bruce on security, reconstruction, trade and development in Afghanistan delivered to House Magazine on Mon 2nd Jun 2008

Malcolm visited Afghanistan last year with the International Development Committee to see reconstruction projects

Much of the media coverage on Afghanistan in the UK relates directly to Britain's military engagement in the region. As a committee whose remit concerns International Development, our focus when conducting our recent inquiry was on the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Since reconstruction and development can only be achieved through the maintenance of peace and security, any development work does rely on the success of the military mission. Purely from a Development perspective, the conclusion that can be reached is that the overall military engagement in Afghanistan is far less than it needs to be.

The first major challenge therefore is for the Afghan National Army to reach its capability. There has been progress in this area already, as was shown when Afghan troops played a large part in the successful battle for Musa Qala, alongside NATO forces. Training and mentoring from UK forces has helped the Army, which is just two to three years away from achieving capacity.

The same cannot currently be said for the development of the civilian police force. Reports of corruption, partly attributed to low pay and drug use, within the Afghan National Police, are eroding confidence amongst the general populace. In a bid to speed up progress on this front, training has recently been streamlined and now falls under a joint European mission, but concrete results as yet remain elusive.

One of the main challenges for the EU Police Mission must be to face up to the lack of female police officers. Less than 1 per cent of the 63,000 police being paid salaries in 2006 were women and, in a country where men and women are often segregated, this needs to be addressed if women are to feel comfortable reporting crimes.

The justice system is also currently failing to address the needs of women. Although many women do not have confidence in the state courts, more traditional and informal justice mechanisms, such as Shar'ia, which is still widespread, tend to discriminate against women, children and other minorities. The UK Government has contributed £2.5 million towards a new Justice Sector Reform Project, but what is really needed is advice and encouragement from other Islamic countries about how Afghanistan can establish a judicial system that complies with its international human rights obligations.

Many charities have expressed concern that funding by international donors has disproportionately favoured the development of policing and the army in favour of the judicial and agriculture sectors.

When people think of Afghanistan's agriculture sector they tend to concentrate on opium poppy production - and understandably so, since it counts as the main source of income for 14% of the population. There are clearly real issues to be addressed here, but recent trends and regional disparities show a strong correlation with poppy cultivation and security rather than just income alone.

For instance in Helmand Province, which is responsible for 50% of Afghanistan's cultivation, it is evident that traders often collect the crop directly from farmers, enabling them to avoid check-point payments and road-side bribes, but more importantly ensuring that they also avoid the insecurities of open and dangerous roads. This makes poppies a low-risk crop in a high-risk environment, whereas other crops, such as mint or saffron - and at current prices wheat and other crops - may offer greater returns per acre, but there is no support to help take these products to market safely. In short: security is the pre-cursor to poppy control, rather than vice-versa.

The Afghanistan situation presents many challenges and it is clear that there is a lot more to be done. There are questions over international aid co-ordination, and there is a desire to see the United States' Government commit more of its spending locally in order to bolster local capacity-building.

However, the UK should take pride in its role so far in helping this war-ravaged country reconstruct its institutions and society, and it is right that we continue to work in partnership with Afghanistan's Government in bringing peace and security to the people of Afghanistan.