Afghanistan – show them change, don’t tell them
It is becoming a thematic position of ours that in the case of international relations, change is best effected by showing not telling other countries what they should do; foreign policy efficiency resides in slowly affecting change from within. Afghanistan is a case in point. We have been telling the government in Kabul and the local populace that we offer a better alternative than the Taliban. We gift them things such as water pumps for irrigation and their lot improves briefly until the Taliban follow on and steal it.
When aid attempts to make change in that way, albeit with best intentions in mind, the locals have little buy-in. They will enjoy the benefits but as they have little ‘skin in the game’ one is not changing society itself. It is a passive process, and one subject to frequent roll-back as the Taliban and Western forces swap territory back and forth during campaigns.
This why we are so supportive of initiatives such as Helmand Islamic Investment and Finance Corporation, an Islamic credit union funded by Britain. This seems to us a sustainable initiative to turn the population in Helmand away from the Taliban and into work. The Helmand Fund provides micro loans locally to create employment through self-employment. Since the end of 2007, the credit union in Helmand has in total lent $1 million to 1,441 people, from farmers to flower sellers, from tailors to tradesmen. This is the sort of operation that warrants promotion and the provision of security to ensure it can continue to meet its charter.
After the Taliban made nine threatening phone calls and fired a Kalashnikov outside his house, Shah Mohammad Mir left his hometown for months before returning with a new car and a new telephone number.
His crime was lending tiny amounts of money to farmers with as few as five sheep or to women who embroider traditional fabric for a few dollars a month…
“I’m just competing with the Taliban,” said Mir, sporting a long wavy beard and grey turban. “It is our country, our Afghanistan, and we’re prepared to work for it. The Taliban intimidated me into leaving my job but I’m not scared – I’m a young man and a young man is never scared at any point.”
The loans are given in kind, in keeping with Islamic Sharia law and paid back with a 2 percent “administration charge” rather than interest repayments, which are forbidden under Islam.
The money, usually less than $2,000 each loan, means that farmers who would have grown poppy, whose inputs are provided by the Taliban and repaid with their harvest, can grow wheat and other crops independently and sell their own produce.
More than 30 men have abandoned the Taliban as a result…
