Post-war programme implementation and procurement: Afghanistan

Compared to other countries emerging from violent conflict, Afghanistan was relatively successful in mobilising and utilising international assistance. Yet typically in countries emerging from fragility, governments and their diplomatic and security partners complain about the slowness of development assistance. This is often blamed on complex donor procedures, particularly for procurement, which slow down the impact of development assistance on the transition from state fragility to resilience to shocks that could trigger recurrence of armed conflict. Despite difficult initial conditions, Afghanistan seemed able to minimise the delays in utilising development assistance when it re-engaged with the international community at the beginning of 2002. This paper describes the experience of programme implementation and procurement in Afghanistan and sets out lessons for other countries coming out of prolonged fragility and conflict.