Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Recovery in Afghanistan: Ongoing Debate on Best Instruments from Czech Perspective Irena Descubes.

Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Recovery in Afghanistan:

Ongoing Debate on Best Instruments from Czech Perspective

Irena Descubes

Agenda

• Should military and humanitarian-civilian operations be clearly split?

• Humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery operatory modes and strategies – the Czech-led PRT, Lógar province– Specificities of People in Need (PIN)

Clear split versus “winning hearts and minds”?

• Blurry borders– NGOs as a “force multiplier” for the US army (Colin Powell,

2001)– PRTs “designed to improve security, extend the reach of

the Afghan government and facilitate reconstruction in priority provinces” (US Department of State, 2006)

– …“independent humanitarian action, which involved unarmed aid workers going into areas of conflict to provide aid, had become impossible in Afghanistan” (Buissonnière, 2004).

Humanitarian assistance & disaster recovery - PIN

Czech-led PRT

After 2014?

“…the lead nations of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) should establish and implement a plan to gradually phase out PRT-provided assistance and other militarized forms of aid. This transition strategy should prioritize an increase in funding and support for national and international civilian organizations.”

(A Joint Briefing Paper by 29 Aid Organizations Working in Afghanistan for

the NATO Heads of Government Summit, Lisbon, November 19-20, 2010)

Some recommendations for ISAF and PRTs to conclude…

• Stop duplicating the missions undertaken by the INGOs

• Focus on:– training of Afghani security forces– cutting the insurgency forces’ resources stemming from

grey economy and trace the narcotics network back to its ringleaders

– Gradually phase out PRT-provided and other militarized forms of reconstruction aid

– Forward grants to national and international civilian organizations

Thank you for your attention!