Can Good Policy Be Made in Afghanistan? Reflections on Policy Making Practices

Wednesday, July 15 2009 - by Dr. Adam Pain of AREU
 

The Center for Policy and Human Development (CPHD) held a third debate in its Guest Lecture series 2009 entitled “Can Good Policy Be Made in Afghanistan?” The lecture was delivered by Dr. Adam Pain, Visiting Professor in Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Uppsala, and an affiliate of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU).

The lecture provided reflections on policy making practices in post-2001 Afghanistan and whether these policies can be implemented with the current limited capacity of the government. Dr. Pain argued that a number of major players including donors, external agencies and international institutions, are insufficiently coordinated in delivering on aid promises and hopes for the Afghan people.

Dr. Pain noted donor preconditions often go unfulfilled, in particular with uncoordinated communication between donors and implementing parties, wasting funds and efforts, producing few efficient development results.

Discussing how different recommended complicated development achievements in Afghanistan, Dr. Pain highlighted the huge gap between drafting and later implementing policies into practice.

Dr. Pain presented three key policy narratives – conceptual viewpoints that define how different actors approach development policies – that dominate the recent policy environment in Afghanistan:

• ‘Productionism’ – defining the problem as the lack of production

• ‘Developmentalism’ – under which the challenge is viewed as lack of public goods and community development

• Market-Driven – viewing the problem as a lack of an active free market

Noting the importance of agriculture for the Afghan economy, through which 80% of the country’s rural population makes a living, Dr. Pain stressed that the agricultural sector was nearly devastation after 30 years of war. Rural infrastructure, such as irrigation and roads remain in disrepair, with a general exodus of technical and managerial expertise.

The lecture was well attended in particular by international staff from donor agencies and the United Nations and sparked lively debate on the effectiveness of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and other key features of today’s development landscape in Afghanistan.