International Conference on Afghanistan—1
April 2004
BERLIN CONFERENCE SECURITY SECTOR PAPER
BACKGROUND
A stable security sector in Afghanistan will
underpin political and economic activity. Whilst much has been
achieved against the Bonn 1 targets, there is a tong way to go
in most areas. This capping paper draws together separate pieces
of work on progress in the areas of Counter Narcotics, Law Enforcement,
the Judicial Sector, MoD Reform and the creation of ANA, DDR and
NOS Reform and also looks ahead outlining future plans (out to
three years), resource issues and any cross pillar linkages that
need to be addressed. This latter point is an important one—currently,
there is a draft National Security Policy soon—to be followed
by a National SSR Strategy, these will need to be circulated widely
so that there is maximum integration across the security sector.
STRATEGIC GOALS
FOR THE
SECURITY SECTOR
SSR activities have, to date, worked largely
in isolation—many of the issues and forward programs identified
in the discussion in this paper demonstrate the need for better
integration. Programs in the security sector need to become more
holistic and the process must also be linked to broader national
social and economic policies. This point was implicit in the Bonn
Agreement and is now explicit within the Constitution. SSR policies
are currently being performed in the absence of a strategic environmental
framework. They lack a national Context.
They are currently based on a relatively narrow
perception of what needs to be done institutionally. An output
based approach is needed and for that there is a need to identify
the broader strategic purpose of these activities to meet, not
just a reform of structure and governance, but also, their fitness
for purpose. To this end the Office of National Security Council
has completed the draft of the first National Threat Assessment.
This document sets out the security threats and challenges, both
internal and external, which face Afghanistan over the next five
years. The principal Afghan security sector stakeholders are being
consulted and the aim is to have this process completed in the
next three to four weeks. In the future it will be an annual process.
This will help address the Context of SSR policy.
One should ask the question: is the effort currently
devoted to SSR activities consistent with the strategic environment
and the broader national interest; and if so, are those policies
and activities coherent in terms of related social and economic
development objectives; and if so, are they working? Afghanistan
currently has no overarching framework by which to measure these
outputs and judge their success. Indeed, security sector institutions
have no comprehensive political direction from Government setting
out their responsibilities and security tasks. A clear and coherent
National Security Policy is needed to direct and manage SSR activities,
and which is consistent with the security threats and challenges
articulated in the National Threat Assessment. A National Security
Policy Framework draft will be completed shortly. It will be circulated
among key stakeholders across the security sector. A collectively
agreed draft will be forwarded through the National Security Council,
to the Cabinet.
There is a need for better co-ordination across
the security sector. In some instances this lack of co-ordination
has led to decreasing confidence in the program by ministries,
and frustration by donors. Then there are cases where the program
of one donor nation cuts across the efforts and activities of
another. Equally, there are numerous instances where programs
supported by a lead nation are unaware of the activities and objectives
of another, often from the same funding source. There is a requirement
for a more holistic approach to policy. The ONSC intends to improve
co-ordination of the Afghan institutional activities, responses
and oversight of policy implementation. Recently, the President
has agreed that the NSC be used as a vehicle for security sector
discussion and that every six weeks, it will sit with key international
actors to discuss, prioritise and de-conflict security sector
issues. In the intervening weeks, Ministries and the Embassies
of the five lead SSR nations will also brief the President regularly
on progress in their particular areas. This should help to move
away from the current multi-sector donor supported environment.
Clearly the Afghan security reform process needs
to remain not only Afghan owned, but Afghan controlled. To this
end the following goals are reiterated:
— The security ministries and departments
must all be brought under full democratic government control.
A good start has been made in the MoD, Mol and NDS; this process
will be continued.
— There needs to be adequate resources
not only to pay for security sector reform initiatives, but also
to pay the soldiers and police. Financial assistance here will
repay itself as it enables the government to take control of its
own revenue sources.
— The forces need to be trained and
configured to meet the existing internal threats. External defence
will have to be conducted for some time with the support of the
international community and, perhaps eventually, treaty guarantees,
until the internal situation is stabilised.
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