Many Shuras Do Not a Government Make: International Community Engagement with Local Councils in Afghanistan
Date
2010-09-07
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United States Institute of Peace
Abstract
The need to engage local Afghan leaders and support community decision making has
recently been promoted as a key element of both development and counterinsurgency
strategies in Afghanistan.
The resulting proliferation of community councils—commonly called shuras or jirgas—
sponsored by different actors within the Afghan government and international community
has decreased the effectiveness of local governance and rule of law in many places.
Traditional Afghan dispute resolution and governance bodies are most effective when they
are formed by local residents and genuinely reflect the interests of the community. Their
legitimacy decreases if international or government sponsors create shuras or jirgas to
promote their own interests.
This paradox creates a dilemma for programs designed to foster good governance: how to
promote community self-rule that reflects traditional values and mechanisms and that develop
locally, while adhering to rigid counterinsurgency and development timelines and strategies. These so-called ‘traditional’ political structures have an important place in local governance
in Afghanistan, but the international community should not assume that such bodies fairly
represent their respective communities. Rather, sound understanding of local dynamics and
in-depth consultation with local government actors and community leaders are necessary to
help ensure that such bodies are represented and thus, legitimate within the community.
A more coherent, sustainable vision of long-term local governance and coordinated strategies
between the Afghan government and international forces is necessary to bring both stability
and development to Afghanistan. In particular, this Peace Brief supports the attempts to create
a coherent long-term goal of local governance based on legitimate local actors, most likely
selected through elections.
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Keywords
Dispute resolution (Law) -- Afghanistan., Justice, Administration of -- Afghanistan.