Strengthening of counter narcotics institutions

ASI is currently working on a three-year project to strengthen counter narcotics institutions in Afghanistan.  Last year's Afghanistan Opium Survey described a country split in two.  While poppy cultivation has risen dramatically in Helmand, most of the country has moved in the opposite direction, with most provinces either reducing cultivation or going poppy free.  For many provinces it is opium trafficking, not cultivation, that presents the biggest challenge.  Despite this counter narcotics efforts are currently based on a ‘one size fits all' strategy and tend not to adapt to local circumstances.
 
Our team has been supporting the Afghan government to establish a new approach that strikes a better balance between provincial initiative and central direction: local tactics in pursuit of national strategy. The approach sees provinces providing greater input into national counter narcotics efforts resulting in better targeting of development activities for counter narcotics purposes.  
 
Based in four provinces - Nangarhar, Badakshan Herat and Balkh - our advisers are supporting authorities to formulate provincial counter narcotics plans.  This involves working with Governor Offices, the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) and other line ministries to develop robust planning and budgeting practices.  Planning is only a start; actually getting projects initiated in the provinces is a huge challenge.  Our advisers are building capacity within line ministries to ensure that, as programmes are funded, they have the ability to implement projects and monitor their impact.
 
In Kabul, our team is assisting the MCN, the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Independent Directorate for Local Government (IDLG) and line ministries to establish systems that will enable provincial plans to be fed into national programmes so that they better address narcotics problems in each province.  They are also working to improve funding mechanisms increase the number of counter narcotics projects being implemented on the ground.