PRTs in Afghanistan: More for Less?

PRTs in Afghanistan: More for Less? March 10, 2010
by Matthew Leatherman

The Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) concept has been both a source of policy inspiration and controversy – inspiration because of the way that U.S. diplomats, aid workers, and service-members adapted to circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan, and controversy because of the teams’ ad hoc and near-term approach to operations.

Funding for these teams illustrates each of these characteristics. A heavy reliance on the Defense Department’s Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) allows for quick and flexible funding in response to needs in the field, but also tilts another interagency concept toward DOD. As CERP funding has grown, reaching $1.2 billion in FY2010, so too has the dilemma.

Like an apprentice subject to the interference of a hovering mentor, the Government of Afghanistan is nearly suffocating from this attention. PRTs’ uncommonly deep pockets, with finances that exceed some national donations, aggravate already-complex donor politics, according to Mark Ward of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Even more substantially, Ward noted, PRT resources crowd out the Afghan government’s development efforts. In so doing, the PRTs increasingly stunt the government’s maturation and undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people.

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