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The Afghan Experiment: The Afghan Support Group, Principled Common Programming and the Strategic Framework
Author(s) -
Kreczko Alan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7717.00231
Subject(s) - afghan , humanitarian aid , perspective (graphical) , political science , field (mathematics) , public relations , public administration , computer science , law , artificial intelligence , mathematics , pure mathematics
From 1997 to 2001, the international community put in place unique mechanisms to address the challenges to providing humanitarian assistance in Taliban‐run Afghanistan. The Afghan Support Group (ASG), Principled Common Programming (PCP) and the Strategic Framework (SF) constituted a precedent‐setting experiment that consumed thousands of hours in implementation in donor capitals and in the field. This article, written from the perspective of the leading donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, assesses the extent to which this Afghan experiment succeeded in increasing coherence on assistance policy issues, improving efficiency in assistance programmes and added synergy between assistance and peace efforts; identifies factors that limited further achievements; suggests how the mechanisms could have been improved; and analyses whether the overall effort politicised humanitarian assistance. The article concludes that the record of achievement was sufficiently promising that the ASG/PCP/SF experiment should be considered for application in other complex humanitarian emergencies.