NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - As international donors discuss the future of insurgency-wracked Afghanistan in Kabul, aid workers warn that a government plan to entice Taliban fighters to put down their arms threatens one of the impoverished nation's most successful development initiatives.
The National Solidarity Programme (NSP), which has been running since 2002, provides grants of around $30,000 directly to village communities who manage the funds themselves and decide what development projects they need through elected village councils.
With the help of national and international aid agencies, facilities including irrigation, water and sanitation systems, roads and schools for girls have been built, reaching about two-thirds of the country and benefiting around 17.5 million Afghans.
But aid workers say the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP), endorsed by donor nations at Tuesday's conference, includes plans to use communities participating in the NSP to support efforts to reintegrate former insurgents. They warn it could militarise the development initiative, resulting in revenge attacks.
"Our concern is really about the safety of communities who are part of the NSP, and if you link the NSP to reintegration of former militants, you are jeopardising their safety," said Ashley Jackson, head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam International in Afghanistan.
"Violence against civilians in Afghanistan has increased greatly over the past year and executions of civilians are now up to around one a day, and there are often reports of retaliation attacks where militants have beheaded those considered to be siding with the government."
REINTEGRATION PLAN
Plagued by violence for the last three decades, impoverished Afghanistan has seen over $40 billion poured in by international donors since the overthrow of the Taliban by U.S.-led forces in 2002.
Despite the deployment of thousands of NATO forces which are leading Afghan troops in counter-insurgency operations against militants, violence is on the increase.
With foreign donors becoming impatient for results and Afghans disillusioned by poor security and economic opportunities, experts say the military strategy is shifting towards reconciliation and wooing tens of thousands of lower-level insurgents to rejoin society with incentives such as cash allowances, education and vocational training, and job opportunities.
Aid workers say the reintegration plan will also provide bonus grants of up to $150,000 to elected Community Development Councils (CDCs) set up at village level to manage NSP activities if they help support reintegration of ex-combatants into their communities.
The funds will be spent to benefit the entire village - including ex-combatants and their victims - and the former fighters will be involved in the development projects, as well as being eligible to stand for election to the councils.
Donors have already pledged around $170 million towards a Reintegration Trust Fund, and officials estimate the fund will disburse more than $1.5 billion to village councils in the next few years.
But aid agencies like Oxfam and ActionAid - two of the 29 partners that have helped implement projects in 21,700 NSP communities - say the strategy is flawed.
SECURITY THREAT
"(We) believe that the popular perception of APRP held by armed opposition groups as a political strategy and a plan to weaken the armed opposition may greatly endanger NSP's ongoing implementation and jeopardise its credibility as a community development programme," said ActionAid Afghanistan analyst Zarrena Vasquez.
"We fear that this may erode the very foundations and principles of NSP which are the guarantors of its success and its safe operational environment - i.e. transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and equity."
According to Afghanistan Rights Monitor, at least 1,074 civilians were killed and over 1,500 injured in armed violence in the first half of this year, up 1.3 percent from the same period last year.
Experts say aid workers and the development projects themselves are also at risk from militant attacks if the new reintegration programme goes ahead. There were 174 recorded incidents of attacks on aid agencies last year, according to Afghan NGO Safety Office.
Humanitarians add that attempts to disarm militants by offering aid to communities in return is "unethical" as it forces villagers, who may not want to manage reintegration due to the risks but need development, to make tough choices between security and aid.
FULL SUPPORT REQUIRED
Those who support the plan say it should be done through the Community Development Councils because many communities have no other effective structures to manage funds and local reintegration.
Afghan officials insist the NSP has helped build social cohesion, and if former militants want to live peacefully in a community, then the programme will be there to help them as members of that community.
"It is very clear that we will be operating NSP as before, so that's our business and our core priority," said Abdul Rahman Ayubi, the NSP's operations director at the ministry of rural rehabilitation and development.
"But if there are people who are affected by conflict such as war widows or anti-government forces who have surrendered, then we should be prepared to help through the structures created as they are part of the community. I don't believe that there are security risks if this is communicated properly."
But according to the World Bank, one of the NSP's biggest funders, merging it with the reintegration of ex-combatants cannot be done unless all participants support the plan.
"At the end of the day, even if reintegration is linked with the NSP, but facilitating partners are not happy and are not willing to implement it, then it's not going to happen," said Qazi Azmat Isa, a World Bank rural development specialist and NSP task manager.
"No one is going to hold a gun to their head and say 'implement this programme'. It has to be a fully consultative process."
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