Nearing The End

I'm getting closer to the end of my tour here, and at this point I wanted to provide a little feedback and a few of my thoughts about what I've seen and what I feel like we accomplished. There seems to be a common misconception out there - fed largely by what I admit is growing and often vocal cynicism on my part - that I'm bitter and upset about being here, and that I don't feel like we've accomplished anything. For the record, that is not true. Yes, I tend to be cynical, and yes, there are days that make you wonder what the point of it all actually is, but overall I do feel like this PRT has been successful, and has contributed to making a difference around here. I say contributed because the reality is that reconstruction and development are long-term goals (as in multi-decade), so seeing the process in a year-long slice doesn't do justice to what still needs to happen for long-term success.

Just from a numbers standpoint, the Panjshir PRT has more than tripled the amount of funded projects that have been approved for 2008. For 2006 and 2007, it was pretty much a linear progression in the amount of funding for new projects. So far in 2008, we have three times as much as last year, which includes two major roads, plus several million more in projects that haven't been approved yet. Numbers don't tell the whole story, but it's a start.

We have six large schools nearing completion that will be done shortly after spring starts, when the weather warms up. We have public health projects all around the valley, including both new construction and renovations or additions to existing clinics. Two new roads will probably start this summer, which will extend the main road (finished last year by USAID) by a total of about forty kilometers. The list goes on, but you get the idea. The next team of engineers will have plenty of work to do.

As an engineer, I've been busy all year. It's extremely satisfying to see a school go from an empty field to a completed building, but it does not necessarily indicate progress. This is what I think frustrates many people, myself included, about the type of work that this team does. Aid work comes in all kinds of different forms, but I suspect that the types that require the longest range of vision are also the types that require the most patience and perspective from the aid workers. At a homeless shelter, you can work one-on-one with those in need, and with luck, you can see improvement: overcoming an addiction or holding a job, for example.

On the level of a PRT, it's extremely difficult to see that sort of impact. We can build and open a girls' school, but it's only a nice looking building until it has qualified teachers to fill it. We can open health clinics in every district in the province, but again, without qualified doctors and nurses, infant mortality isn't going to change. In a sense, we have the easy part. Supervising a contractor and getting a good quality building requires persistence, but it's certainly achievable. Mentoring a national ministry like Public Health or Education requires years of persistence and training. Afghanistan lost a generation to the Russians and the Taliban; it's going to take the better part of a generation to fill that gap.

In the meantime, what happens to the schools and clinics we built? They get used, but there's no structured curriculum, and there may not be teachers with more than a high school education. That's not exactly a foundation for success for the thousands of children whose only hope of doing more than just survive is to get some sort of decent education. The Governor can afford for his children to go to school in Kabul, but it will be years or decades before the central government is able to bring quality educational opportunities to children who don't have the good fortune to be born to the tiny fraction of the population with the means to circumvent the local problems.

What happens when Pakistan disintegrates and the infection of extremists in Afghanistan goes from simmering to boiling? Panjshir is in many ways a model PRT because of the security situation here, and the fact that the local government is capable enough to maintain a safe, poppy-free province. That security is the essential factor in enabling the PRT to successfully complete projects and interact in a positive way with the population. Panjshir may be a model province, but small pockets of security and development don't necessarily represent the direction of the country as a whole.

These types of issues are the reason that I've come to the conclusion that I don't possess the patience to work on an enduring basis in the developing world. Some people do; I would call them saints. Maybe it comes with age, but my ability to deal with the long-term, strategic-level timescales required is just not adequate for me to stay sane around here. Fortunately, in about two weeks, the next team will start to arrive and I will start the process of going home.

Compounding the big-picture type of patience that I don't entirely possess is the fact that I have to deal daily with the Army, an organization that is not designed for the type of work it is currently managing by handling the PRTs. I could go all day on this subject (and someday I probably will), but for now I'll just leave it at the fact that this type of aid work requires a flexible organization capable of adapting to unique and dynamic circumstances. Despite a recent emphasis on "Civil Affairs", the Army is a kinetic organization, fundamentally designed to hunt down and kill people. Most of the time, this doesn't breed the troop mentality, institutional patience, or leadership required for nation-building. In all fairness to the Army, they have been thrust into a role they don't really belong in, which is not a recipe for success.

This probably sounds like exactly like the type of pessimism I've been accused of all year. The fact of the matter is that on a provincial level, this team has been successful. Projects have gotten done, children have been able to go to nicer schools, roads have opened up economic avenues that never existed before. We have made a difference, and I am proud to have been a part of it. On a national level, I don't know what is going to happen. The political environment in the United States and around the world will determine the outcome, and the best I can hope for is that smarter and more patient people than myself will be able to spend the years and decades required to make substantial and lasting improvements to this country.