Twelfth Meeting of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and

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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: EAID EFIN ECON PGOV AF
SUBJECT: Twelfth Meeting of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and
Monitoring Board (JCMB)

REF: Kabul 1734

SUMMARY


1. (U) JCMB-XII approved the Afghan government's Civilian Technical
Assistance Plan, and three donors, including the U.S., pledged
specific support for some of the 55 urgently needed technical
advisors. A new TA Task Force will carry implementation forward and
take account of any donor concerns. The meeting also welcomed the
GIRoA's recently improved revenue performance and approved a Revenue
Action Plan of steps to improve performance further. Senior Afghan
officials stressed that the Afghan army and police would spare no
effort to ensure a secure and fair election, and that the GIRoA was
cooperating closely with ISAF in this effort. The JCMB also
approved the Commerce Minister's plans to streamline and reform
business licensing, a key aspect of private sector development.
Several donors said the JCMB is becoming a more effective forum for
Afghan-international community collaboration, in part because the
GIRoA is producing better, more supportable policy plans. End
Summary


2. (U) The twelfth meeting of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring
Board (JCMB) convened July 8 in Kabul, co-chaired by UN SRSG Kai
Eide and Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal, the latter's first
JCMB as co-chair. The U.S. was represented by Ambassador Wayne,
Coordinating Director for Development, Assistance, and Economic
Affairs. Eide opened the meeting by citing the significant progress
since the last JCMB meeting, including in agriculture and private
sector development, based on improved GIRoA plans and firm
international community (IC) support for those plans. It is
important, he said, to keep up this positive momentum through the
election campaign and beyond. Eide also welcomed new JCMB members
Denmark, Poland, and UAE. Zakhilwal also noted the more active
GIRoA leadership in working with donors.

CIVILIAN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PLAN


3. (U) Zakhilwal presented the GIRoA's proposed Civilian Technical
Assistance Plan (CTAP) and noted that the Development Standing
Committee had broadly endorsed the proposal at its June 23 meeting
(reftel). The plan asks donors in the first phase to support
funding of 55 urgently needed technical advisor positions. A
Civilian TA Task Force will be set up to decide delivery mechanisms
that accord with the four principles the GIRoA has articulated for
TA. In the second phase the GIRoA aims to establish a National
Capacity Development and Technical Assistance Program (NCDTAP) that
would pool donor funds to be used by line ministries to enlist the
TA they need to implement the ANDS. Zakhilwal said the Task Force
would hold its first meeting July 16.


4. (U) Donors broadly endorsed CTAP. Ambassador Wayne welcomed
GIRoA efforts to prioritize its requests, expressed support for
CTAP's principles, and said the U.S. wants to align our support with
them as we increase civilian TA. He said the U.S. would provide up
to $30 million to CTAP over two years. The number of advisors this
would fund would depend on the delivery mechanism we select
(septel). The U.S. supports the principle of hiring qualified
regional advisors for some tasks. The only other countries to make
specific commitments were Canada ($500K) and the UK (15 of the 55
advisors, amount unspecified). Most other donors expressed general
support for CTAP, though the World Bank reiterated its concerns
about the pooled funding aspect of NCDTAP. While noting these
concerns, Eide declared the plan approved and said the new Task
Force would take implementation forward and take account of any
donor concerns.

REVENUE ACTION PLAN


5. (U) Deputy Finance Minister Sabit providQ fresh evidence of the
GIRoA's improved revenue collection, described the Revenue Action
Plan to improve performance further, and noted those areas where the
plan needs donor assistance. He said the average domestic revenue
collected so far this fiscal year (since March 20) is Afs 5.3
billion ($106 million) per month, up from Afs 3.1 billion ($63
million) per month in the same period last year. Zakhilwal repeated
his prediction that the GIRoA can surpass its IMF target of Afs 50
billion ($1 billion) this year.

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6. (U) The U.S. and other donors strongly welcomed the improved
performance and the new plan. Ambassador Wayne praised the good
initial revenue improvement, welcomed MOF's commitment to enable
donors to review performance going forward, and called for further
structural reforms, including transparent recruitment of tax
collectors. He said the U.S. would continue to support increased
revenue generation through programs run by USAID and the Border
Management Task Force, and urged other donors also to extend
support. The JCMB approved the Revenue Action Plan. (Comment: In a
separate dinner conversation, Zakhilwal told Ambassador Wayne that
he fully intended to keep squeezing corruption out of the system and
to make structural changes to perpetuate the increased revenues. He
also said he was working hard not just to meet, but to surpass IMF
targets for this year.)

ELECTION SECURITY


7. (U) Defense Minister Wardak and Interior Minister Atmar gave the
JCMB a report on plans to ensure election security. Wardak stressed
that the ANSF would spare no effort to ensure a secure and fair
election, and that the GIRoA was cooperating closely with ISAF in
this effort. He said the government expects the enemy will try to
disrupt the election. The GIRoA faces many challenges but has
developed plans to tackle them. In all some 60,000 ANP and 47,000
ANA personnel would be deployed for election security. ANSF would
be in the lead, with ISAF in a supporting role, including by
providing airlift.


8. (U) Atmar noted the ANP's challenge of remaining neutral and
professional. He said he had issued a directive to all ANP to be
neutral, in support of the President's analogous decree. Some 36
ANP officers have received warnings about suspected partiality on
the job. Atmar also called for donors to support a joint ANP-donor
monitoring system, led by UNAMA, to promote ANP neutrality. He
noted the acute shortage of police in some provinces (SE 6,000
short; West 1,200 short) for the upcoming elections and that the
GIRoA will rely on community-based security in some places. Atmar
particularly highlighted the shortage of female police and urged
that solutions be found - possibly hiring teachers and students - to
recruit and train a female cadre prior to elections. COMISAF
General McChrystal said the coordination between ISAF and ANSF is
very strong and that ISAF will commit every asset necessary to
support ANSF efforts to ensure election security.

AGRICULTURE


9. (U) Agriculture Minister Rahimi gave a progress report on the
five priorities it presented at JCMB-XI in April. He said donors
have pledged $17.5 million for urgent wheat seed assistance, short
of the $32.4 million requested. A project to set up a one-stop shop
at MAIL for leasing government-owned land is being developed. MAIL
still seeks firm funding, and donors' cooperation on providing data,
for its plans to research farm credit facilities. Partial funding
has been identified for a "change management" project at MAIL, i.e.
ministry restructuring. And UK DFID will provide BPS 30 million
over three years for the Comprehensive Agricultural and Rural
Development facility. Rahimi also noted the bumper harvest this
year. Wheat production averaged 3 metric tons per hectare, he said.
If Afghanistan could raise this to 3.5 tons/ha, which only required
more agricultural inputs, it would be self-sufficient in grain.


10. (U) SRSG Eide urged donors to fund MAIL's immediate priorities
and to supply information to the farm credit mapping exercise, which
could be a model. Ambassador Wayne said support for agriculture was
a key pillar of the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan. Afghan
leadership was our guiding principle, and the U.S. would
significantly increase its agricultural assistance.

PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT: LICENSING REFORM


11. (U) Commerce Minister Shahrani described his plans to streamline
and reform procedures for business licensing, one of his ministry's
five priorities for private sector development. He also noted a
proposed new "business plan" for MOCI (ministry restructuring),
which the Minister discussed in greater detail with donors at a
separate meeting on July 12. Shahrani plans to begin the licensing

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reform effort in his own ministry and then expand the effort to
other ministries that issue licenses. Hence he would need cabinet
approval for the plan, which he secured at the cabinet's July 13
meeting. Donors supported the plan, and the JCMB approved it.

JCMB ANNUAL REPORT


12. (U) SRSG Eide noted that the draft JCMB Annual Report covering
the period since March 2008 has been circulated and invited donor
comments by July 15. The report discusses progress or the lack
thereof during this period in the JCMB priorities of donor
coordination and the JCMB mechanism, ANDS implementation and aid
effectiveness, security sector reform, sub-national governance,
anti-corruption, agriculture, private sector development, and
counter-narcotics. Looking ahead, the report argues that the period
following upcoming elections offers a window of opportunity for the
JCMB to drive issues of the broader governance and development
agenda in Afghanistan forward, as agreed at the 2008 Paris and 2009
Hague conferences. It urges that joint Afghan-IC efforts be focused
on implementation of a limited number of high-priority aspects of
the ANDS, and that the JCMB play a more energetic role in
identifying these priorities. At the same time, the report calls
for further empowering the GIRoA to lead in identifying priorities
where coordinated donor assistance should be aligned through the
JCMB mechanism. The report also calls for institution building at
central and sub-national level to be an overarching priority in the
coming year. The Canadian and Dutch ambassadors, among others,
intervened to say that the JCMB has significantly improved its
performance over the last year and is now a much more useful and
productive forum.

ANDS ANNUAL REPORT


13. (U) Zakhilwal noted that the GIRoA's first annual report on ANDS
has been circulated in draft to ministries and the IMF and World
Bank. A short summary was provided to donors, and a donor meeting
would be convened by end-July to approve the report and urge donors
to align their aid programs with the ANDS. The ANDS annual report
is a condition for receiving official debt reduction under the
Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

EIKENBERRY