Lumping of Islamabad, Kabul uplift programmes opposed

US think tank report states US strategy for Islamabad is off course.

KARACHI:

A leading US think tank has recommended to the US administration to clarify its mission in Pakistan and separate the Pakistan development programme from both the Afghanistan programme as well as from the Pakistan security programme.

This recommendation is made in a report titled ‘Beyond Bullets and Bombs’ which focuses on how Washington can improve its aid programme in Pakistan. The report, which is intended for the Obama administration, is prepared by Center for Global Development (CGD).

It says that the administration’s integrated “Af-Pak” approach – lumping Pakistan together with Afghanistan in policy deliberations and bureaucratic lines of authority – has “muddled” the Pakistan development mission. Similarly, “the integration of development, diplomacy and defence has… left the program without a clear, focused mandate.”

The CGD report also gives four other recommendations to improve the US development programme in Pakistan. It suggests that the US should put one person in charge of the development program in Washington and in Islamabad (name a leader), set up a website with regularly updated data on US aid commitments and disbursements in Pakistan by project (say what you are doing), place, and recipient, allow for greater staff continuity, carve out a greater role for program staff in policy dialogue (staff the USAID mission for success), and hire senior-level Pakistani leadership, track not just the outputs of US aid projects, but Pakistan’s overall development progress (measure what matters).

CGD president Nancy Birdsall says, “The US is way off course in Pakistan,” adding, “It’s heavily focused on security while neglecting low-cost, low-risk investments in jobs, growth, and the long haul of democracy building.”

The report states that there are three ingredients that can lead Pakistan into a well functioning developed country: a stable and capable state able to deliver justice and meet the basic needs of its citizens, a strong private sector able to provide jobs, and a healthy civil society able to play its rightful role in the democratic process.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2011.