Paktika government develops five-year plan

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan –Paktika Provincial Reconstruction Team personnel joined the provincial government to discuss the next five years of development during the provincial development plan review and validation shura June 1-2.

The shura was a capacity-building exercise for about 75 of Paktika’s provincial government officials, district sub-governors, provincial council members and community elders.
 

Each participant reviewed a draft PDP and prioritized their lists of programs and projects based on the needs of the people. Eight working groups, including sectors like education, public health and agriculture, created prioritized project lists on the first day and then presented them on the second day.
 

Going into the planning sessions, the governor cautioned participants of potential challenges like a lack of budget and coordination between ministries, as well as security concerns.
 

 “One of the big things we’re emphasizing is trying to get the provincial government to focus less on creating physical structures and more on developing governance capacity,” said Navy Lt. Mike Hammond, PRT information operations officer from Huntsville, Ala. “For example, the director of education presented a list of 60 schools he wants built in the province over the next 5 years.
 

“Where are the teachers going to come from? How are we going to train them?” he said. “These are some of the hard questions that we need answers for.”
 

One PRT member worked with each sector working group to ensure the government officials stayed focused on the PDP objectives. Taking security into account, PRT advisors made recommendations to line directors and members of the provincial council on prioritizing locations for future projects.
 

When it comes to effectively prioritizing and allocating funds from their provincial budget, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Barry Whyte, PRT Civil-Military Operations Center chief from Fresno, Calif., said Paktika’s government spent only 75 percent of the provincial budget in 2010.
 

“The money is there,” Whyte told the government leaders. “We have to work together to make this system work. It’s painful, but it’s necessary. One of your criteria for these projects is security. If the location isn’t safe and secure, then don’t do that project or reassess the security situation later.”
 

Even after the lead representative from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan noted that one sector working group’s proposed projects would consume nearly 25 percent of Afghanistan’s entire $4 billion annual development budget, participants struggled with the reality that they must begin to do more with fewer funds.  
 

 “Despite these obstacles, the PDP shura was a key learning opportunity for many leaders who had never participated in the strategic planning process,” said Justin Kolbeck, the PRT’s U.S. Department of State political advisor.  
 

Navy Chief Petty Officer Doug Thompson, PRT medical noncommissioned officer-in-charge from Dayton, Ohio, worked closely with the provincial director of public health for the past seven months. Thompson was pleased with the public health sector’s final project list that included doctor and nurse training courses for both men and women.
 

 “For me, the highlight of the shura was when Dr. Wali Gul [the director of public health] stood up to question the director of education on simply building schools for the sake of it,” Thompson said. “I feel like we made a lot of progress.”
 

Although the sector working groups presented a finalized project list to all participants, the process of locking in a five-year PDP is not complete. Over the next two to three weeks, a smaller group of line directors, as well as Kolbeck, will whittle down and de-conflict the programs and projects.
 

Kolbeck worked alongside and advised key government leaders for almost a year now and explained the provincial government demonstrated progress in focusing on transition and building capacity rather than structures through this PDP shura.
 

“Overall I think it went well,” Kolbeck said. “In addition, it provided a healthy forum in which international donors and Paktika’s leaders hashed out differences of opinion on potential development projects.”