Ban Ki-Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has appointed a seasoned Norwegian diplomat, Kai Eide, as his special representative to Afghanistan. Eides success will depend not only on his skills, but also on the friends of Afghanistan at the UN providing him with the proper mission, mandate and resources.
The most important task for the new special representative is to form a trusting, collaborative relationship with President Hamid Karzai, enabling them to agree on Afghanistan’s key challenges and on how aid money and military assistance can best be used. The Security Council is scheduled to extend the mandate of the UN’s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan for another year — the perfect chance to provide a clear set of priorities.
This resolution rightly gives Eide the powers to directly coordinate all of the support provided by international donors. As things stand, more than 30 national embassies and bilateral development agencies, several UN agencies, four development banks and international financial institutions, and about 2,000 non-governmental organisations and contractors are involved in rebuilding in Afghanistan.
However, because of a lack of coordination among the donors, reconstruction resources often fail to arrive in a timely way after areas have been cleared of the enemy. Hundreds of projects are undertaken by allies and non-governmental groups without coordination with the Afghan government, leading to cases of “ghost” schools or health clinics that are built but sit idle because they cannot be staffed or equipped.
Ministries are often hamstrung by having to comply with the varying procurement and accounting rules of dozens of foreign agencies, many of which are not consistent with Afghan law. This puts the international community at cross purposes with our goal of helping Afghanistan build coherent national systems for education, health and other services.
There is only one way to end the confusion: The UN must take on the primary coordination role, and donors must show a willingness to be coordinated. The new resolution allows this to happen in a number of ways.
First, Eide will need to oversee the coordination of civilian assistance with military efforts of the two military organisations operating in Afghanistan, NATO and the International Security Assistance Force.
Second, Eide must coordinate the efforts of the international community to support the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year plan agreed upon in 2006 by the government of Afghanistan, the UN and the international community that requires Afghan leaders to take steps in reform and institution-building in exchange for commitments of sustained support. Third, the new UN special representative should help the leaders and people of key donor countries understand achievements and challenges.
Last, Eide will have a mandate to engage Afghanistan’s neighbours to help stabilise the country. In the aftermath of 9/11, regional powers came together to support the so-called Bonn agreement, which enabled Afghans to freely choose their own government.
