After nearly nine months in Afghanistan, the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team began returning to the United States, June 25.
Members of the team expressed pride in the accomplishments they achieved during the deployment, but were quick to point out much work remains unfinished.
Some of the more successful initiatives the PRT worked on include the District Delivery Program, strategic planning efforts with provincial directors, and developing a partnership with Afghanistan’s second largest undergraduate institution, the University of Nangarhar, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Anderson, Nangarhar PRT commander, from Dallas.
The District Delivery Program is an Afghan-led initiative that seeks to increase competency and capability of government officials at the lowest levels, said Mouhsen Habib, Nangarhar PRT provincial governance and development officer, from Lake Forest, Calif. Nine of Nangarhar’s 22 districts currently receive or are scheduled to receive DDP benefits.
Those benefits include greater pay for district officials, funding for operations and maintenance of current facilities, and approval of new facilities, Habib continued. However, beyond simply increasing the monetary flow districts receive, the DDP arguably offers even more value by building relationships between various levels of government, said Habib.
“This program is critical and very important for transition, especially if you want to connect the sub-national government to the national government,” he explained.
Afghan officials who hosted the DDP in their districts are equally optimistic about the program.
“People will trust the government more than they used to because of the DDP,” said former Kuz Kunar District Gov. Hajji Abdul Qayum during his district’s assessment in late April. “Before, there was corruption. Now, there’s order.”
The DDP is less than a year old, but the successes it’s already accrued have made Habib one of its greatest defenders. He said he hopes the Afghan government remains committed to the program and builds on the strong foundation they’ve laid.
“Any time you introduce a program, you’ve got to let it mature,” he said. “If you keep changing strategies, you’ll never succeed.”
Beyond stressing improved service delivery for districts, the PRT also worked in close coordination with government administrators at the provincial level, said U.S. Army Spc. Anthony Palo, Nangarhar PRT civil affairs specialist, from Minneapolis, Minn. They’ve placed special emphasis on building the capacity of line directors, the officials responsible for functional areas of governance in Nangarhar, like infrastructure or electricity.
The two directorates most influenced by the PRT are health and education, Palo continued. The directorates severely lacked strategic planning when the team arrived in country; however, through close coordination with the directors, they developed five-year plans that outlined how the directors will allocate their scarce resources in the future.
“If these plans are adhered to, I believe the health and education sectors of Nangarhar will be incredibly successful,” Palo said.
Beyond planning, though, the PRT also stressed the importance of confronting corruption with some notable successes. During a meeting, May 28, with his subordinates, Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad, Nangarhar director of public health, made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate bribery in his directorate.
“If someone offers my doctors a bribe, it’s like they’re offering me a bribe,” he said. “I’m not interested in their dirty money.”
While the PRT’s efforts at ensuring the success of the DDP and provincial line directors focused on increasing competency of the current government, the PRT’s approach to the University of Nangarhar has been aimed at positively influencing tomorrow’s leaders in Afghanistan, said U.S. Air Force Capt. Ryan Ernst, Nangarhar PRT information operations officer, from Hastings, Minn.
“We’ve concentrated on teaching good governance today so we can break the cycle of oppression and corruption,” Ernst said. “We’re fighting yesterday’s kids today, and we don’t want to fight today’s kids tomorrow.”
Operations at the university placed importance on empowering the students to have a say in their undergraduate experience, Ernst explained. For instance: the PRT facilitated the creation of Afghanistan’s first collegiate-level student council. The council polled their fellow students on their needs, and found the most pressing issue was lavatories for the female dorms. The PRT then provided financial aid so the students could build bathrooms themselves, increasing their sense of ownership on their campus.
While empowering the students is a big priority at the university, the PRT recognized that to enact major changes, they would need to enlist outside help, Ernst said. To that end, they approached the University of Arizona about the prospects of collaborating with Nangarhar for the mutual benefit of both colleges.
“The University of Arizona stepped forward to partner with the UoN on a $1 million, three-year program,” he said. “They’ll help build a communications department facility, and then initiate an exchange program to mentor the faculty in the department.”
Even with success on numerous governance fronts, the outgoing PRT recognized the work in Nangarhar is far from complete.
Nangarhar has the potential to be Afghanistan’s premier province, said Anderson. They have government officials who know what they’re doing and where they need to go to be successful.
“The critical elements of governance are here; the pockets of competence and capacity are here,” he said.
However, the government needs to focus on maintenance and sustainment of current facilities to expand service delivery to the people, an effort Anderson said he hopes the next PRT emphasizes.
In the end, the team can look back on its time in Nangarhar and know they contributed significantly to the province’s stability, said Anderson.
“Nangarhar is definitely a better place due to our deployment,” he said. “The team can go home with their heads held high.”
