The changing face of HELMAND
Ian Carr, Assistant Editor Defence Focus, reports A Gains
Catriona Laing, who recently returned to the UK following an 18-month deployment as Head of the UK Mission in Helmand, leading the Provincial Reconstruction Team, says she is convinced that it will:
“Our strap line is locking in the gains we’ve made.”
Those gains, she explains, stem from 3 central priorities:
• supporting the spread of government influence throughout Helmand province
• making the instruments of government accountable to the people
lot has changed in central Helmand province in a relatively short space of time, especially in the
central valley region around Lashkar Gah, home to 80% of the population.
Today, from an Afghan’s perspective, security is less of an issue than prices at the market. Unemployment runs at an enviable 4%, there are girls in schools, health centres for the sick and elected representatives in government. How has this happened, and perhaps more importantly, will it endure?
• demonstrating that proper budgeting and financial planning mean the population can see tangible benefits from supporting the government at the provincial and district levels
Centuries of experience have taught the Afghans to be talented pragmatists. Ingrained is the knowledge that survival depends on having a heightened appreciation of who holds the real power and then making sure you are on their side.
The question they face every day is ‘who has the most influence over my life?’ For a long time the brutal answer was the Taliban. But all they offered was a harsh system of justice. Then it was International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), offering security and dollars for irrigation ditches in exchange for the hearts and minds of the population.
The challenge facing Catriona and her team was convincing the local population that the real answer to that question was ‘actually, it’s you, through your government and your own security forces’. But for that message to stick, Catriona was well aware that the government had to be trusted, and it had to deliver:
“When I started this job I knew we were entering a complex phase and that the transition of authority and responsibility to
local institutions for things like security and development would be accelerating,” she said.
“We were coming to a point where we would have to narrow our focus to only mission-critical outcomes.”
Helmand plan
So the first task Catriona set herself was to review the Helmand plan, a route map that was produced to establish a sustainable future for the province:
“It was a useful document,” she said. “It covered pretty much everything from infrastructure to governance, but it wasn’t very good in terms of prioritisation.”
Reviewing the plan meant that she could set her team to work on those things that would make a difference, ensuring the Afghans have a self-sustainable future:
“It was clear that everything we did would have to boost the legitimacy of the government and boost the people’s trust in it.”
Which set a curious guideline for the team. If as a result of their efforts local people believed they were doing a good job, then they had failed in their objective. It was the government’s legitimacy that needed boosting, not theirs.
18
Envoy Winter 2013
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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