Mohammad Shehzad

James A Bever was sworn in as USAID Afghanistan's Mission Director on November 7, 2003. He has extensive field experience across the Islamic world, from Morocco to West Bank/Gaza to Pakistan and Indonesia. He is responsible for managing all USAID programmes in Afghanistan which include managing over $1 billion in 2004, part of the $2 billion in supplemental funds signed into law by President Bush for Afghanistan. He spoke to TFT about his mission.

Question: What's your agenda in Afghanistan?

Years of civil war compounded by the Taliban rule and the worst drought in memory have devastated Afghanistan. Most of the country's institutions and much of its infrastructure were destroyed. USAID is helping Afghans stand on their feet. It is working in eight key areas: strengthening governance, rehabilitating agriculture, empowering women, improving health, restoring media, restoring infrastructure, enhancing education, growing the economy.

Question: What factors are hampering the work of USAID?

The single most important factor affecting the pace of development is the need for adequate security and stability. Some parts of the country are more stable and permissive than others, but in many parts in the east, the south and the northeast, the security situation has to improve for development work to have some impact. The second constraint is the need to rebuild the Afghan government's institutional and staff capabilities, i.e. good public administration. Rebuilding this after 25 years of destruction and of the dispersion of good talent is going to be very, very challenging and will take time.

Question: Could incentives to warlords improve the security?

There is a programme called the DDR [Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration]. The UN has the lead in this. We are supporting them. Some heavy weapons have been returned. There are more and more voluntary identifications by Afghans of weapons caches all over the country. This is a very recent phenomenon over the last two months and a welcome development. The Constitutional Loya Jirga has given courage to the Afghan people and they hope to get rid of the domination of the warlords in the near future.

Question: The chief justice of Afghanistan Mr Shinwari has banned women driving, women singing, cable TV, etc. Is this a matter of concern for you because women empowerment is on your agenda?

We consider Afghanistan a sovereign government. The chief justice still serves at the behest of the Afghan president. We do want to see that international human rights are respected. The rights of women and their equal status should be respected under the new constitution. We are supporting the human rights commission. With reform of the judicial infrastructure, we have built courts. We are training judges and supporting the lawyers' organisations.

Question: But the International Crisis Group's [ICG] report says the new constitution is unlikely to protect the human rights issues.

I disagree. There are certainly doubts. The American constitution has been amended at least 26 times. We had no woman, by the way, in our equivalent of the Constitutional Loya Jirga! So Afghanistan should be proud of itself. I commend Afghanistan for having women not only as judges in the constitutional commission but also 20% of the members of the Jirga itself are women. This is the most progressive reforms-oriented constitution in this part of the world. We are going to do our best to assuage the doubts mentioned by this group [ICG]. Our opinion is that the doubts are unfounded. The real proof of the constitution will not be in its wording but how the courts interpret the words. That's why we are going to support the judicial system. It is a difficult institution-building challenge.

Question: Could big corporations play a role in Afghanistan's reconstruction as part of their CSR [corporate social responsibility] strategy?

First, Afghanistan will have to get some major corporations out here who are willing to take the risk in exchange for the possible returns. The right infrastructure is not in place yet. We are working on economic governance and financial reforms; customs and tax revenue improvement; budget improvement by the government; revenue collection; and utility restructure. We are launching a privatisation effort in collaboration with the government. Over time, some of the larger corporations will come.

Question: Do you see any role for the Pakistani NGOs? If yes, in what areas?

Absolutely, assuming the Afghan government is open to Pakistani NGOs participation. With this assumption, I would say, Pakistani NGOs could be very helpful to Afghan NGOs. Health is one area where they could work. Non-profit organisations; journalists and business associations; professional organisations of engineers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers are the organisations that Afghanistan might welcome.

Question: What have been your tangible achievements?

The Kabul-Kandhahar Highway is a metaphor for what can happen in Afghanistan despite the inadequate security, asphalt and construction equipment. We are undertaking the Kandhahar-Heart project. The other is the success of emergency and constitution Loya Jirga we financed. The fact that millions of Afghans did not either freeze or starve to death during the fighting after 9/11 and the severe winters after that is a big achievement. We are already funding the measles immunisation, which has gotten to 80-90% of children in this country. The wheat production has increased due to good rain and the good quality seeds and fertiliser that we have distributed through private vendors.

Question: If President Bush loses the election, do you see any change in Washington's policy towards Afghanistan?

It is not my role to comment on political issues. But I would say, nobody should question our resolve when it comes to what happened on 9/11.

Question: Poppy culture has returned to Afghanistan.

It is the matter of concern for the Afghan government and Afghanistan's friends for multiple reasons. We are concerned about how this affects the professional integrity of public servants over time in a country where drug related wealth can be so corrupting. We don't want to see this happen in Afghanistan. The Afghan government does not want to see this happen.

Copyright ©2002 Mohammad Shehzad and The Friday Times. About the author