Interview with the UN special representative for reconstruction

With more than US $4.5 billion pledged for Afghanistan reconstruction, the newly appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for reconstruction, Nigel Fisher, told IRIN that the UN would not take the lead role in Afghanistan - rather it would support the Afghan administration in rebuilding the country. "There is every reason to hope that the country can come out of this cycle of conflict because you have the beginnings of administration and you have considerable international interest and support," he said expressing optimism and hope. Fisher, from Canada, is a former regional director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for South Asia. He has worked with UNICEF for over 20 years, in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as at UNICEF headquarters in New York. QUESTION: In terms of reconstruction and rehabilitation, what are the immediate priorities? ANSWER: The immediate priorities obviously continue to be life saving. It's to make sure that the UN system continues those activities, which can take people through the winter and through the coming year, in terms of assuring that there is minimum mortality from lack of food, from cold and from the epidemics. So it's really focused on trying to make sure that the emergency operations continue, whether it's refugee return, whether it's delivery of food, essential healthcare and so on. But at the same time to start looking at recovery issues. Reconstitution of the education system, the health system, looking at rural livelihoods, reconstitution of urban as well as rural services. Q: What's different for the UN in Afghanistan in comparison to other recent interventions where it has had to take a lead role in rebuilding a shattered region or nation? A: Certainly now the UN is committed to ensure that this government can function and that it can start taking control of its own affairs. This is different from most post-conflict situations when there is little or no government and the UN is used to taking a very strong role, even in governance. This is a situation where through the Bonn process the UN is actually been instrumental in helping, in a sense, to ensure the existence of the interim administration. Therefore, we have two tasks really, one is to ensure that the Afghan population survives and starts to recover but the second is very much focused on helping the administration to develop its capacity to develop policy, guidelines and protocols for action to help it coordinate the activities that are going on in the country. So perhaps more than in other post conflict situations we have a very strong immediate capacity building role in trying to support the government. Q: Given the incidents of violence over the past few days, how important is security for the whole process? A: I think security is a constant factor and will continue to be extremely important. Obviously, we cannot send the UN or partner workers into areas which are not safe. Already from the recent incidents in Mazar-e Sharif, we are operating in a very insecure environment. There is a large team of UN security officers on the ground to advise us on security issues. It's also important that the UN will have a continuing interface with the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) as well as the US forces to try and encourage the international community to extend the mandate of ISAF beyond Kabul into other cities. It’s very important also to look at how do we resolve the security problems in rural areas. For example, one of the priorities of the administration and ourselves are providing alternatives to poppy cultivation. Poppy cultivation is taking place in one of the most insecure parts of the country. Q: These are stopgap measures, what will be a permanent solution? A: Obviously, the permanent solution is the good governance, building up a strong administration to manage the country's reconstruction. To support the administration for creating the rule of law and creating good infrastructure. Also in supporting the civil society and the birth of a vibrant private sector. Supporting NGOs to work at community level and besides the central structure supporting a good governance structure in the provinces and beyond that rural development to take place. Q: Before the war, rural areas were mostly left out of development activities, which were limited to urban centres in Afghanistan. How are you going to integrate the rural areas in the new process? A: Already, under the immediate humanitarian activities, for example the delivery of foodstuff to the returning refugees, it's very much focused on rural areas, which are highly vulnerable and most at risk. Beyond that Chairman Karzai has already indicated some 10 rural zones within the country, which the government sees as priority for the international support, where they want to get community development going again and restart agriculture to get rural livelihoods going again. So there is a real concern that we focus just not on supporting a government in the isolation of Kabul but also getting out and supporting the rural communities. The discussion for setting up a rural community development fund, which is accessible to the people. Q: One of your roles will be that of coordination. How important is it? A: Again it's critical and step one in coordination is having good and reliable information about the situation, whether its security, the food security or the extension of social services. The second is that there are many different kinds of actors playing in Afghanistan, the UN, bilaterals [donors], international financial institutions, NGOs and at the moment, I don't think people know or agencies know, what each of these are doing. So this management of information is very important. Within the UN system, we see that one of the most effective ways of ensuring better coordination is to decide on coordinators for each sector. This will help them in setting certain targets to deliver better results. They will also help their counterparts in the Afghan administration to develop its technical capacity and better coordinate. Q: Do you think that the amount pledged in Tokyo's donor conference are sufficient, in addition to that do you think that the international community is not going to walk away from Afghanistan again? A: The pledges at Tokyo are a good start. It's important to make sure that these pledges are turned into actual commitment of resources. I hope that the international community would not walk away. Obviously in many post-conflict and post-emergency situations, there is a tendency that once the immediate crisis is finished, once the media attention disappears the international community tends to go on to the next crisis. This situation might well be different because the international community realises that it's past neglect of Afghanistan had led to the crisis of international security and terrorism that we face today and there is a realisation that supporting Afghanistan to recover is a very important element in a sense for international safety and security. It's very important for the international community to be very much aware that security is not just a function of helping Afghanistan to recover but you have to look at the combination of poverty, unemployment and often problems of governance in the whole region needs to be addressed. So there are a lot more reasons for the international community to be involved in Afghanistan. Q: How would you revive agriculture and other "traditional" sectors of the Afghan economy? A: There are plans to start planting again. This can be done by bringing in seeds, tools and repairing the irrigation systems. But one has to bear in mind too that after years of fighting, of deforestation, we had several years of drought. So we have to look not into how we produce crops this year but how we manage the eco system. For example, the issue of water resources management. After several years of drought water tables are declining and there is less surface water available. We also have to look into different dry land irrigation systems. We are talking with the administration about systems of rural credit that will provide grants to rural communities when they had identified their recovery needs. Q: What major challenges do you see ahead? A: It’s very important that the Afghans see quick results. Over the years they have seen their hopes dashed so many times that they must be given reasons to believe that this time it's different. So they must see children back in school in the morning. They must see that people are returning safely to their villages. They must see that it's possible to find jobs and getting them. First of all, working to support the administration to produce results that people can see is very important. Attracting international investment back to Afghanistan is fairly important. Helping Afghanistan to use aid also to get on it's feet is necessary. Security is also a huge factor. There are other issues to be looked at, such as human rights and gender issues. There are too many challenges and these are just a few examples. Q: What's your overall prognosis? A: There is every reason to hope that the country can come out of this cycle of conflict because you have the beginnings of administration and you have considerable international interest and support. But I am also aware that there are many elements in the society who like the old ways. Power was very much related to the power of the gun or the power of the poppy or the power of smuggling. So those are the dangers that threaten our work with the new administration and the population of Afghanistan to make sure that the positive elements in the society move forward.