Sherard Cowper-Coles

Parliamentary Enquiry

Friday.  Nothing.  No appointments, no engagements, no meetings.  Plenty of reading, of course.  Lots of catching up.  But another beautiful day, with the sun on the mountains beyond.  It's a week since President Karzai and I got back from London.  The visit seems a world away, though people keep coming up to me and saying that they hear it was a huge success.  The second question seems almost always to be about Rory Stewart's tartan trews, in the photo on the blog: no-one understands Scottish  tribal dress.

I have seen President Karzai three times this week.  Twice on matters of war and peace, in Helmand and elsewhere, but once with the House of Commons Select Committee on Development, chaired by the Liberal Democrat Malcolm Bruce.  They had a full and frank, but entirely friendly, exchange with the President, covering everything from women's rights to poppy eradication.  

The DFID team here had been preparing for the Committee's visit for some weeks, in a mood of nervous anticipation.  In the end they need not have worried.  The Committee took a close and constructive interest in both Afghanistan's problems, and in what HMG in general, and DFID in particular, are doing to address them.  The MPs' openness, their intelligent curiosity, their willingness to engage, was a real morale boost for everyone who met them.

I'm going on breather break next week, and counting the days.  I've enjoyed doing the blog, but it weighs on me, and I'll be glad when I finish next week, having extended by a couple of weeks. Watch this space.


Writtten Transcript

(Sherard) We're outside the President's palace in the centre of Kabul and the Committee has just been with President Karzai and I'm going to ask them for one or two impressions.

(Malcolm Bruce)Well, the President is chatty I have to say is his style and I think we managed to press him on a number of points. He, on the other hand, was keen to point out why some of these things were rather more difficult than perhaps the Committee had understood, although we do appreciate they are very complicated. But I hope at the same time he understands that people are looking to see things happen in a material way. A lot is happening and a lot more needs to happen. Maybe the difference is who can wait for how long for actually getting results. Patience is needed but patience also has to be rewarded elsewhere if the international community is going to stick with it.

(Sherard) Any comments from the other members?

(Committee member) Afghanistan faces enormous problems and moving forward on many fronts but they clearly need support, continuing support, from the international community and I hope our country will do just that.

(Committee member) I think it's fair to say that we're leaving more optimistic than when we arrived.

(Sherard) Good. Well, that's a view from the Liberal Democrat Party, a view from the Conservative Party. What about a Labour view?

(Committee member) Well, I personally found Mr Karzai a very thoughtful and capable leader and I feel more reassured about Afghanistan's future having met him but we have to be in here for the long haul. It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be quick.

(Sherard) It's a marathon, not a sprint.

(Committee member) And I think make a key point about how much damage was done to the country and how much there is to rebuild.

(Committee member) I think as the international community we need to remember the marginalised within Afghan society, particularly women and children and I still do have concerns that Afghanistan needs to live up to its international obligations as much as it has to deal with the security challenges which occur.

(Committee member) I think the great thing about that meeting was that we were able to understand that we are all heading in the same direction but we were able to challenge and be challenged on a number of points and I think it was a useful meeting. It's been a very very valuable visit for us and thanks both to DfID and to the Foreign Office for all their help in the course of this visit.

(Sherard) Good. Well thank you, we had better end the blog there.


Written Transcript

(Sherard) I'm with the International Development Committee of the Houe of Commons, the Select Committee on Development, chaired by Malcolm Bruce MP, on a visit to Afghanistan to one of the projects of the National Solidarity Programme financed by the Department for International Development and we have here the head of the programme and the chairman of the Committee with a class of girls at a school just north of Kabul. Malcolm Bruce.

(Malcolm Bruce) Well, we've just arrived here actually so we've been asking the girls what they enjoy learning. They enjoy Dari, mathematics and Islamic studies and I gather they have sessions in the morning and sessions in the afternoon but it's great to see a functioning school full of girls and I think contributions from the international community towards the salaries of teachers, so you build a school but you need to have teachers as well. Frankly, empty schools are not much use.

(Sherard) We're now ten miles further north in the Shamali Plain, north of Kabul with the International Development Committee of the House of Commons and Malcolm Bruce MP, the Chairman, meeting a Community Development Council under the auspices of the National Solidarity Programme and I'm going to ask Malcolm Bruce just to say a few words about his impressions of the visit so far today.

(Malcolm Bruce) I think what has been really interesting to us is the role of these CDCs which we've established in recent years. They not only decide what projects to build but they also clearly create a social mechanism where people in the community can talk and resolve other issues so that I think we're quite clear about is that these CDCs are an important part of decision-making in the country and we think good for the future although decisions have to be made as to how they're going to be incorporated in future government but I think we certainly see these as a very interesting programme.

(Afghan gentleman)This is community hall. People use this for their ordinary meeting here, councils, and also literacy courses for females and also old men and also who do not have acces to the school, they take benefit of this building for establishing such kinds of workshops, seminars and also literacy courses for people at the community level.

(Sherard) Shakram. That's the end of today's blog from the Shamali Plain, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Posted at 08:01 02 November 2007 by Sherard Cowper-Coles  |  Comments[1]