Priority 2. Strengthen Afghan institutional capacity to deliver core services and promote economic growth, enhancing the confidence of Kandaharis in their government.

Encouraging and deepening public confidence in Afghan government institutions will be an essential part of countering Afghanistan’s insurgency. The Afghan government can only secure that confidence if it improves its delivery of basic public services, including health care, education, roads, and water for households and irrigation. These obligations describe the dual imperative in this Canadian priority: to meet urgent human needs and to build Afghanistan’s capacity for effective, responsible government.

Canadian Objective for 2011: By 2011, we expect that Kandahar’s provincial administration and core ministries of the Afghan government will be better able to provide basic services to key districts of Kandahar province.

Two Canadian signature projects address this objective directly. The first is the rehabilitation of the Dahla Dam and its irrigation system. Important progress was made during the quarter. Construction of a new access road and bridge, strong enough to bear the weight of heavy dam-building equipment, proceeded toward completion in early 2009. And CIDA—the Canadian International Development Agency—chose two Canadian firms, SNC-Lavalin and Hydrosult, to manage the $50 million rehabilitation project over the next three years.

Signature Project: Dahla Dam and Irrigation System

(as seen on front cover)

Originally built in the 1950s through a U.S.-Afghanistan partnership, the Dahla Dam and its irrigation system store and distribute water to an area supporting 80 percent of Kandahar’s population. But decades of war and disrepair have left the dam and canals operating far below potential, and scarce water is wasted. Rehabilitating the dam and irrigation system can dramatically increase the reliability of water supply to Kandahar farmers, and generate thousands of seasonal jobs. Canada will invest up to $50 million over three years to make urgent repairs to the dam, fix gates controlling water flows from the Arghandab River, restore canals, and support establishment of a water management agency. The project also includes training for farmers in water management and crop production. The results: more sustainable and efficient distribution of water, improved farm production, employment growth and higher incomes.

A second signature project commits Canada to build, expand or repair 50 schools in key Kandahar districts. In this quarter one school was completed, bringing the total completed under the project to three. Another 22 were under construction. As well, we aim to have helped train 3,000 teachers by 2011. Teacher training continued in this quarter in a program funded by the United States, and the first phase of in-service training for working teachers has been concluded (most Kandahar schoolteachers have no post-secondary education). This is a necessary precursor to work that Canada will do in teacher training. Vocational and literacy courses for adults continued successfully during the quarter, with some 10,949 adults, including 8,984 women, preparing to complete a 10-month literacy course in January 2009.

For Kandaharis, most of whom are illiterate, learning to read yields simple but immediate and powerful rewards. “I can now read signs along the road in the city,” said one woman, a widow with five children. For the first time, she and other participants can read children’s names on documents, identify a bus route or qualify for a job.

Canada is working to help strengthen the reach of the Afghan government in a variety of national programs. But notable progress was also recorded in smaller-scale improvements to basic services important to Kandahar families. Through support to the Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development and other partners, Canada assisted the start-up of a number of new businesses—including a bakery and a bazaar—that have now created jobs and generated revenue for local entrepreneurs. Canada helped set up a new service in Kandahar that enables local firms to bid on procurement contracts with international agencies and local government operating in the province—another job- and income-generating innovation. And Canada helped 26 Kandahari women secure start-up training and supplies to launch their own poultry businesses.

As another personal example, one businessman counted himself a successful beneficiary of two Canadian-supported loans for new machinery in his Kandahar City bedding factory. The loans—worth $4,600 and $9,200—“…enabled me to purchase more resources needed for the factory in order to operate my business with confidence,” he said. His firm employs about 10 men in the factory and 70 women working from home. The loans were made possible by the Kabul-based Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan, which has received $6.5 million from Canada in 2008-09 for its work across Afghanistan.

Still another project, widely popular among Kandaharis, involved a $1.2 million Canadian contribution through public institutions to distribute 300 tonnes of wheat seeds and fertilizer to more than 5,000 Kandahar farmers. The seeds can produce more accessible and affordable food supplies for the province. For farmers, they will provide an alternative to growing poppy crops for the opium trade.

West of Kandahar City, in Zhari district, Canadian aid has helped link eight small villages with new roads while fostering new capacity for local development. The roads have noticeably improved life for villagers. Said one: “Before the construction of the road, we used to carry patients on our backs to health clinics.” Besides more accessible health care, the project created jobs and served to build capacity in Zhari’s Community Development Council, which was responsible for administering the road work.

These and all other development activities in Kandahar have confronted the impediments that war imposes on life and travel in the city and the countryside. Movement of Canadian development workers and non-governmental partners in some parts of key districts is nearly impossible. In other areas it requires travel in armoured vehicles under constant and close protection.