A strong civilian assistance strategy for Pakistan

By J Alexander Thier, June 1, 2011 Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - 12:43 PM Share

Since passage of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act in October 2009 (aka the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act, or KLB), the United States has worked with a variety of Pakistani partners to begin to put programs in place that address the Act's objective -- improving the living conditions of the people of Pakistan through sustainable economic development, strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and combating the extremism that threatens Pakistan and the United States. For example, the United States is helping to complete and rehabilitate power facilities that will add over 500MW to Pakistan's power grid by the end of this year, easing power shortages that cripple the economy and reduce the quality of life for ordinary Pakistanis. A dramatic U.S. assistance program helped save the winter wheat crop -- averting a food crisis for millions of Pakistanis --after the devastating floods of 2010. Since the KLB Act was passed, the U.S. government has disbursed $1.7 billion of civilian assistance funds in Pakistan.

At the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the impact and transparency of our efforts in Pakistan and elsewhere is the core of our mission. We welcome the launch today of a report on assistance to Pakistan by the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, DC. I am pleased to see that the report identifies several challenges that USAID has addressed in seeking to maximize the impact of U.S. development assistance in Pakistan. (Full disclosure, I was a proud member of the study group until I assumed my official position with USAID in June 2010).

Many of the recommendations in the CGD report, for example, to prioritize efforts to engage reformers and to encourage investment have already been implemented by USAID in Pakistan over the last year. Indeed, USAID has avoided a rush to spend in Pakistan, instead moving deliberately to assure that the programs meet Pakistani priorities, that adequate accountability and monitoring mechanisms are in place, and that program results match the level of resources being committed.

The report highlights the importance of supporting job creation and private sector growth in Pakistan. Perhaps one of the most distinctive features of USAID's program in Pakistan is the priority it places on stimulating economic growth. USAID is achieving this by working to help Pakistan solve its energy crisis, by completing dams, upgrading power plants, and seeking structural and policy reforms. USAID's total energy program is designed to add 540 MW to Pakistan's power grid by 2012, which will help ensure that critical businesses don't have to shut down operations every day. We estimate that Pakistan is losing hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs each year from under-production of textiles alone.

USAID is also working to stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and raise incomes in the agriculture sector. Pakistan's agriculture sector provides 21 percent of GDP and currently employs 44 percent of the national labor force. Work in this sector has become even more critical in the aftermath of unprecedented flooding that swept the country last year, which affected over 20 million Pakistanis.

Following the floods, USAID provided emergency seeds, tools, and livestock to restored lands, ensuring continued livelihoods for 25 percent of the flood-affected population. Due to the improved wheat seed varieties provided by USAID, preliminary average yields per acre are currently 60 percent higher than the traditional country-wide average. Under current yield rates and market prices, the value of the 2011 spring wheat is expected to be approximately $190 million.

CGD's report also points out that there is a need for USAID's work to be better understood in Pakistan. This point is well-taken. While communications is an integral part of everything USAID does -- every USAID project comes with an associated communications strategy, nearly everything is branded, and USAID staff interact with Pakistani press on a weekly basis -- we recognize the need to further improve understanding of our work in Pakistan.

The study group's most valuable contribution is that it exposes the difficult path that lies between policy formulation and implementation. Working in Pakistan has many challenges -- if it was easy, our contribution would not be so robust or urgent. The importance of getting development right in Pakistan has forced USAID to rethink the way it does business. For example, USAID is working to improve governance in every aspect of its work in Pakistan, so that our contributions and Pakistan's democratic reforms will be durable. We are working closely with Pakistani government bodies at the national and provincial level to build their capacity and ensure they can manage U.S. assistance responsibly and effectively. Pakistani ministries are rigorously evaluated for their accounting and management capabilities, accountants and technical advisers are embedded where necessary, spending and implementation plans are jointly drawn, and third-party monitoring arrangements are specified.

With the exception of a few years, USAID has been working in Pakistan continuously since our creation in the 1960s. Pakistan's Green Revolution, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and Tarbela Dam are all part of USAID's legacy. With continued humility, patience, and clarity of mission, USAID looks forward to working with the Government of Pakistan and the Pakistani people to build on our past successes.

J Alexander Thier is Assistant to the Administrator for Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs at USAID.

John Moore/Getty Images

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MARTY MARTEL

1:30 PM ET

June 1, 2011

Hallucinations

Proof is in the pudding as the saying goes.

As Mr. Thier mentioned, ‘USAID has been working in Pakistan continuously since our creation in the 1960s‘. And as Mr. Thier can NOT be ignorant of the fact either that Pakistan has had atleast four military coups in that time period. So much for building civilian institutions.

Mr. Thier can NOT be ignorant of the fact either that Pakistan has become lot more Islamic fundamentalist during this time period in spite of all the US aid.

Mr. Thier together with Kerry, Lugar and Berman have to hallucinating to think that new acts will work where old ones have NOT worked.

The main-stream educational system in Pakistan is radicalized by Islamic teaching that projects Islam as the only savior in the world. Pakistan is suffering from ‘Saudization’ of its society by the education system that was revised in 1976 (long after US AID started working in Pakistan) by the act of its parliament that, like Saudi Arabia’s system, provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. It demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of a school-going child a sense of siege and embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.

The promotion of militarism in Pakistan’s so-called “secular” public schools, colleges and universities had a profound effect upon young minds. Militant jihad became part of the culture on college and university campuses. Armed groups flourished, they invited students for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, set up offices throughout the country, collected funds at Friday prayers and declared a war which knew no borders.

Not long ago, Pervez Hoodhbhoy, a professor in an Islamabad University wrote the following:

‘For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. This change is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state used Islam as an instrument of state policy. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for academic posts in universities required that the candidate demonstrate a knowledge of Islamic teachings and jihad was declared essential for every Muslim. Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state.’

CHARLEY S

6:19 PM ET

June 1, 2011

Unworthy recipient

USAID does good work. But all of it will come to an abrupt end if some Taliban or ISI guy decides to kidnap and kill (like they did Shahzad) or detonate himself close to USAID workers. Then we will call it quits and return home.

For my tax dollars, I would go to more deserving countries in Africa. At least they don't kill our troops or hide fugitives. Better still, drastically reduce all foreign aid and teach countries to solve their own problems, in the process helping our fiscal crisis as well.

SANMAN

10:59 PM ET

June 1, 2011

Needs of the Few Outweight the Needs of the Many

Remember all the assistance the US gave to Pakistan during its earthquake crisis, and then during the more recent flood crisis? Their memory and gratitude last mere days, and then it's back to the usual hatred. The opinion-makers and public figures in their society are too consumed with their irredentism, so that the needs of ordinary Pakistanis are subsumed and drowned out.

Unfortunately, Pakistanis are always one disaster away from introspection.

PETERBERGEN

6:32 PM ET

June 2, 2011

After that the evangelicals would descend on Pakistan to convert

http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=PK

Check out the Joshua Project. ITs a Southern Baptist evangelical organization that is hell bent on ethnic and cultural cleansing of South Asia

See the amount of intelligence they are collecting to convert Muslims into Radical baptist evangelicals. like they have done in South Korea.

KASEMAN

9:55 AM ET

June 3, 2011

who gets USAID's money?

Each individual USAID contractor gets $400,000/y in his pocket. Check the State Dept website. Add corporate overhead, housing , R&R, vehicles, drivers, interpreters, security, etc and the cost is $1 million/y. And he hardly gets out of the expat compound for security reasons.Then add the lengthy vacations. Effective work days? Maybe 100. .

USAID has been in Pakistan for 60 years, yet it still sends out unilingual corn fed neophytes as if nothing has changed. Certainly no input from Pakistanis who know the US and their country very well. USAID takes money from 10 American taxpayers to one, with the minimum of leakages. Except for humanitarian aid, helping Pakistanis in reality is a tertiary objective to providing cushy and high paying jobs to cronies.

As for military aid, the money does not go to the Khaki brass. It goes from our Treasury to the Pentagon to the arms makers who then send those arms picked by the Pentagon to send to Pakistan. The money of course passes through rmany sticky fingers enroute, from the Treasury to Pentagon to Congress to K Street to Rawalpindi. In short military aid to Pakistan is corporate welfare for our arms makers to palm off second rate equipment at inflated prices.

IRFANKH

9:08 PM ET

June 13, 2011

Good Gesture by the people of Pakistan in releasing of Indians

Monday June 13,2011; 22 crew members of a Egyptian owned vessel which 22 crew members consists of 11 from Egypt, 6 from India, 4 from Pakistan and one was from Sri Lanka were finally released from their captors Somali Pirates after receiving ransom amount collected by Pakistani buisness community.

The Egyptian owned vessel owner refused to make the ransom payment to pirates since last 10 months like most of shipping companies pays the ransom to get release their employees and the families of captives were in horrible nightmare as new dead lines were issued by pirates.
Finally, Karachi based Citizens Police Liason Committee lead by Ansaar Barni a human rights activits took the intiative and made contacts with Indian government and Egyptian governments for collective efforts but both refuse to take any interest in release of their citizens who were even in majority. Both government officials and politicians made some irresponcible statements which put in danger the lives of all captives. Finally, Pakistani business community replied the appeal and collected 2.100 million dollars to get release all captives including 4 Pakistanis. This give message to entire world how Pakistanis are generous regardless of race, color, nationality or religion for any noble cause.

I hope that Indian folks will say few words of appreciation about gesture from people of Pakistan in release of their six citizens. Mostly, those Indians write negative and baseless comments