Key GIRoA Ministers Plan Sub-National Governance

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KABUL 002270

DEPT FOR SRAP, SCA/FO, SCA/RA, AND SCA/A
CENTCOM FOR CSTC-A

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON EAID EFIN EAGR AF
SUBJECT: Key GIRoA Ministers Plan Sub-National Governance
Interventions in South and East

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Summary
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1. (SBU) Planning for coordinated U.S./ISAF/UNAMA/GIRoA sub-national
governance interventions in the South and East took shape at an
August 1 meeting of key ministers, senior ISAF and UNAMA
representatives, and Ambassador Eikenberry that was hosted by the
Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development (MRRD). The
Ministers of Finance, Agriculture, Education, Health Care, MRRD, and
the Director of the Independent Directorate for Local Government
(IDLG) agreed to convene a high-level Working Group August 8 to
develop approaches to more effective sub-national interventions and
cooperation with the U.S. and international community, including
possibly via providing the provision of "standard packages" of GIRoA
support at the district level. These packages could include
immediate health services and education interventions, as well as
longer terms development and governance projects. Ministers also
underscored the importance of integrating security considerations
into any district or community level assistance interventions, and
the Minister of Interior may be invited to participate in future
deliberations. Participants recognized limited GIRoA ministry
capacity and debated both the appropriate levels for sub-national
interventions (regional, provincial, or district) and appropriate
local implementing partners (e.g. IDLG-controlled Afghanistan Social
Outreach Program district councils vs. MRRD-sponsored District
Development Assemblies). Ministers welcomed the potential for rapid
response assistance from nascent U.S. District Support Teams in the
South and East but agreed that successful rapid response
interventions ultimately must have an Afghan lead.


2. (SBU) Ambassador Eikenberry emphasized the U.S. principle of
working in partnership with ministries at all levels. He outlined
the U.S. Mission's expanding civilian presence in southern and
eastern regions and the devolution of development funding authority
to our regional platforms that will make our field staff more
responsive to GIRoA priorities and to the parallel civilian staffing
and liaison structures that government ministries may establish.
ISAF and UNAMA reps echoed the U.S. intent to support increased
cooperation with GIRoA at sub-national levels. Active
multi-ministerial engagement in this first high-level multi-lateral
planning session, and in upcoming high-level Working Group meetings,
should focus GIRoA energies on the need to push more qualified
ministry staff to the regional, provincial and district levels now.
End Summary

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Agreement on Integrated Sub-National Interventions
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3. (U) At U.S. recommendation, Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and
Development (MRRD) Minister Ehsan Zia convened an August 1 meeting
of key Afghan Government (GIRoA) ministers and U.S. Ambassador, and
UNAMA and ISAF principals to begin to strategize on sub-national
government interventions country-wide that will build more effective
partnerships with the U.S. regional, provincial and district level
uplift, and with ongoing ISAF and UNAMA programs. Attendees
included Finance Minister Omar Zakhiwahl, Agriculture Irrigation and
Livestock Minister Muhammad Asif Rahimi, Public Health Minister
Mohammad Amin Fatemi, Education Minister Ghulam Farooq Wardak, IDLG
Director General Jelani Popal, UNAMA Deputy SRSG Richard Wagner, and
ISAF Deputy Chief of Staff Stability RADM Borsboom. Ambassador
Eikenberry, Coordinating Director for Development and Economic
Affairs Ambassador Wayne, USAID Director Frej and Interagency
Provincial Affairs Coordinator Liberi represented the U.S.


4. (SBU) MRRD Minister Zia emphasized that recent experience in
newly liberated areas in the South made very clear the need for
rapid, coordinated GIRoA efforts to build trust at the community
level by identifying and delivering needed services to the
populations through a combination of "flexible mechanisms" and
high-level, hands-on ministerial involvement. Without quick action
on district and community-level service delivery, he cautioned,
post-kinetic momentum will be lost. Existing community-level
development resources like the National Solidarity Plan (NSP),while
valuable and successful, are too bound by bureaucratic and budget
constraints to be mobilized quickly. Zia encouraged ministers to
consider both the type of civilian resources and assistance they
need to ensure their leadership of the development process in the
field as well as the appropriate degree to which they should devolve
authority to the provincial and district levels to ensure their
efforts are successful. In a later intervention, Zia emphasized the
importance of integrating Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF),

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both police and military, into any district or community level
assistance intervention. He also noted the immediate need to
coordinate U.S. support for GIRoA ministries planning sub-national
interventions in the south and east, pointing out there are
currently no civilian flights from Kabul to Helmand capital Lashkar
Gah. He concluded on an upbeat and determined note: "An integrated
GIRoA and U.S. district and community-level approach is possible --
and MRRD has the capacity to coordinate it."


5. (SBU) Ambassador Eikenberry supported Minister Zia's call for
Afghan leadership in delivering immediate services and developing
sub-national governance capacity. He emphasized the U.S. principle
of working in partnership with ministries and said the most
important lesson of our ongoing mission to build ANSF is that
success is a function of combined effort. The U.S. and GIRoA concur
that more and better Afghan civilian resources in the field are
fundamental to improve the government's ability to deliver key
services at the sub-national level. Eikenberry recalled his July 16
visit to Helmand province with Minister Zia which made clear that
the government is absent from many districts.


6. (SBU) Beyond developing mechanisms to work together at the
regional, provincial and district levels, Eikenberry said, the U.S.
remains fully committed to helping GIRoA ministries build national
level capacity. At both the regional and national level, the Obama
administration's new Afghan strategy has empowered the U.S. Mission
to initiate programs locally and so operate with greater
flexibility. Such flexibility will allow us to coordinate our
significantly expanding civilian presence at the regional,
provincial and district levels in parallel with GIRoA ministers'
development of civilian liaison structures. Eikenberry emphasized,
however, that the degree of devolution of GIRoA authority from the
federal to the regional, provincial and district levels is an
inherently political decision that only GIRoA can make. "We will
partner with you but will not get involved in this political
debate," he concluded.


7. (SBU) Health Minister Fatemi described his Ministry's early July
in-house efforts to brainstorm how best to actively engage in the
South and East, dividing the region's 18 provinces into first and
secondary priority provinces. (Note: According to Fatimi, the
Health Ministry has long divided Afghanistan into eight regional
zones, with specialized medical facilities and equipment positioned
to serve several provinces). First priority provinces, including
Helmand, Kandahar, Farah and Nimroz, are targeted for "immediate
interventions" over the coming six months, with critical supplies,
including vaccines being sent to local administrators. 154 District
Health Office (DHO) administrators have been recruited and appointed
over the past 18 months in accordance with GIRoA Pay and Rank Reform
(PRR) standards to augment staff in the field. They report to their
respective Provincial Health Office (PHO) administrators, who in
turn report directly to the Minister. DHOs, he said, are the
appropriate platforms to liaise with U.S. District Support Teams.
"Count on us," Fatemi concluded, "to come in after the military
clears priority districts."

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Appropriate Level/Focus of Sub-National Governance
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8. (SBU) IDLG Director Popal praised the MRRD's Community
Development Councils (CDCs) as a "success story." With over 22,000
village-level CDCs currently in place, he said he hoped that IDLG
and MRRD would approach the Independent Election Commission (IEC)
after Presidential elections to suggest that the Commission
recognize CDCs as elected village councils. He poQnted to the
unlikelihood of the IEC being able to organize village council
elections in 2011 as a justification for this approach. (Note: MRRD
Minister Zia later took issue with Popol's call for CDCs to be
recognized as elected village councils. Zia argued that, given the
security environment, CDCs could not function in some areas if they
were to be seen having anything other than a purely development
function.)


9. (SBU) Regarding GIRoA interventions and support at the district
level, Popal recalled the UNAMA-driven Integrated Approach
initiative, aimed at identifying "tipping point districts" where
combined security/development/governance interventions were thought
to be able to turn a deteriorating situation around. Some such
districts had already been identified, with pilots launched in
Ghormach, Badghis and Tagab, Kapisa. As a stopgap until district
council elections are held next year, Popal proposed that, where
there are good MRRD-created District Development Assemblies (DDAs -

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these feed CDC input into the provincial development planning
process),these might serve as partners for U.S. District Support
Teams in the field. The IDLG could provide them with
capacity-building programs, while MRRD continues providing direct
support. Where DDAs are not up to the task, district-level councils
created under the IDLG's Afghanistan Social Outreach Program (ASOP)
might substitute. Popal pointed to the lack of any linkage between
CDCs and security and governance and called for this to change. He
encouraged the provision of block grants to such designated
districts to ensure the necessary development component is also
covered.


10. (SBU) Finance Minister Zakhiwahl called the lack of rural
security a function of the lack of GIRoA focus on local governance.
He praised the rapid response capacity of U.S. District Support
Teams that are being stood up but said that, to be successful, such
rapid response interventions must have an Afghan lead. As an
outcome of this MRRD-hosted meeting, he called for meeting
participants to establish a Working Group (WG) to develop a
logistical and financial framework for providing "standard packages"
of GIRoA support to districts, to include immediate health services
and education, as well as longer terms plans for development and
governance. To address security aspects of these district level
interventions, the Ministry of Interior must be involved in the WG.
Finally, he noted that an important initial task for this WG would
be to define responsible Ministry counterparts for U.S. field
officers.


11. (SBU) Agriculture Minister Rahimi said that in Helmand and
Kandahar provinces, ISAF and Afghan military have done a commendable
"clearing" job but there has been no credible GIRoA follow-on
presence to deliver services to post-conflict constituents "still in
a state of shock." District Support Teams, he said, remain in a
formative stage and often must "operate behind walls," which
sustains local suspicions of their ability and intent. Despite
GIRoA discussion and planning for district-level governance that
dates from 2006, he said, there remains little capacity to deliver
services. His own Agriculture Ministry is present in less than 1%
of Afghanistan's 364 districts. Districts are close to "farmers,
mosques and trouble makers" he said and any Kabul-led governance
effort is doomed to fail without a strong and sustained district
presence as a "front line of communications" with Afghan citizens.
Currently the government provides districts "only a corrupt judge
and a few cops," he said.


12. (SBU) For U.S. and Afghan civilian teams to succeed, the
military, ministries and foreign missions must come together to
provide logistical support, Rahimi said. Furthermore, ministries
need to put their best people in the field, "not just those fired
from Kabul headquarters for incompetence," and 5-10 of the best
District Governors in Helmand should be selected to lead pilot
governance programs. Rahimi agreed with Minister Zakhiwahl that the
government needs to design "complete" packages of district services,
to include both quick impact projects and longer term governance
initiatives. Finally, he suggested that District Development Funds
be created to demonstrate GIRoA capacity to district constituents.
Each should be providing provided with up to US$ 500,000 in
resources, with governing boards structured to include District
Governors and other interested local actors. Governing boards
should be authorized to evaluate and approve community-based quick
impact projects on a competitive merit basis.


13. (SBU) Education Minister Wardak acknowledged the weak linkage
between GIRoA and district-level governance and supported the idea
of strengthening DDAs, including via establishing mechanisms to
identify and finance appropriate projects. He argued that, while
education services are key to cementing a sense of shared community,
a combined rather than ministry-specific engagement strategy at the
district level is needed to move forward.


14. (SBU) ISAF Deputy Chief of Staff Stability RADM Borsboom offered
that, given manifestly inadequate GIRoA capacity at the district
level, ISAF has focused its development initiatives to date
primarily at the provincial level. Any future integrated
GIRoA/UNAMA/ISAF approach to district governance could focus on a
number of select pilot districts to determine whether devolution to
this level is viable. Like Popal, he referred back to the UNAMA-led
Integrated Approach initiative. While District Support Teams may be
an appropriate platform from which to explore district-level
interventions, Borsboom offered his personal observation that
establishing adequate government capacity at the provincial level is
a pre-requisite for expanding engagement at the district level.
UNAMA Deputy SRSG Richard Wagner agreed that the success of a

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district-level approach will be dependent on ministries putting
their best people in the field and that the hardships associated
with district-level work will require that appropriate incentive
packages be put in place. Wagner supported the concept of an
inter-ministry "package" of district-level interventions. On the
issue of government coordination with District Support Teams, he
noted that some NGO implementing partners with whom UNAMA works are
reluctant to get involved in initiatives directly linked to the
military.


15. (SBU) Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs
Ambassador Wayne noted the developing consensus on the need to
define and develop an integrated "package" of inter-ministry
district-level interventions and spoke to the need for the Working
Group follow-up to this first meeting deliver concrete results. The
U.S. is expanding its civilian officer presence in targeted southern
and eastern districts now and many more civilians will be deployed
in the coming months. Simultaneously, the U.S. is devolving
development funding authority to the field to enhance flexibility
and make our field staff more responsive to district priorities
established by the government. As a result, the U.S. Mission needs
to engage government ministries in an ongoing and concrete dialogue
on district priorities and on the government's own plans for
district and regional level civilian staffing that integrates
logistics and security concerns within broader development
strategies. Ambassador Eikenberry closed, noting our Senior
Civilian Representative presence at Regional Command South and East
and our hope to see a robust and integrated government ministry
presence in the field.

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Next Steps: August 8 Working Group
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16. (SBU) We will follow up with a meeting at the Deputy Minister
level on August 8, with the inclusion of Ministry of Interior
representative.


17. (SBU) There was some discussion of suggestions by Health
Minister Fatemi and UNAMA DSRSG Wagner that other donors be invited
to join early Working Group discussions. Finance Minister
Zakhiwahl, supported by Ambassadors Eikenberry and Wayne, argued
that the Working Group's first priority should be to focus on
developing the logistical and financing mechanisms required for the
GIRoA to deliver district-level services with donors who have the
capacity and intent to directly involve themselves in district-level
interventions. Other donors could be briefed and broader donor
buy-in sought through the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board
(JCMB) mechanism.


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Comment
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18. (SBU) MRRD's Zia hosted this first sub-national governance
gathering of key ministers at the encouragement of the U.S. Mission.
His organization, enthusiasm and substantive interventions were
impressive and potential friction between MRRD and IDLG over
sub-national governance authority was muted. Popal's call for
Community Development Councils (structured as vehicles to direct
National Solidarity Program funding) and District Development
Assemblies to take on a more political role and link in more closely
with Afghan governance was not new, nor was MRRD Minister Zia's
comeback that CDCs simply could not function in some areas if they
are seen as having anything other than a purely development
function.


19. (SBU) The consensus of participants that the Ministry of
Interior should participate in future Working Group discussions was
a welcome acknowledgement of the central importance of security to
the delivery of government services at the local level. Concrete
interventions by the Finance and Agriculture Ministers on the need
to quickly develop ministry-specific district-level staffing plans
offers promise that upcoming Working Group meetings will focus GIRoA
attention on the need to get qualified ministry staff to the
regional and district levels now.

EIKENBERRY