---

Afghanistan: UK Forces

My Lords, this morning a number of us were privileged to hear and take part in a discussion with a most able and talented young woman called Clare Lockhart, who has recently returned from being an adviser to General Richards. Before that, she worked for the UN in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2005 and was an adviser to the Afghan Government on reconstruction. Some very interesting subjects came up during the discussion. One was the fact that there did not appear to be one overarching strategy for progress in Afghanistan. The UN had a programme, the EU had a programme, NATO had a programme, the United States had a programme and we had a programme—and none of them came together. Another hugely interesting subject came up during the question of reconstruction—that there did not seem to be any co-ordination of regional support for reconstruction, such as what the Gulf states might contribute, what Iran with its asphalt might contribute to road-building, or what Uzbekistan or other countries might do. In this House, we tend to talk in penny packets about little bits of military reinforcement and little bits of what we or DfID might do. That does not seem to be really satisfactory. Unless there is an overarching strategy within which each contributor can see its part and where it is going—especially in the field of reconstruction—we shall go on having this discussion over and again as little bits are added or taken away in the years to come. I know that it is not specifically in the Minister’s patch, but does he feel that this addition to our forces, which is enormously welcome—although not to the forces themselves, because they are overstretched—is part of something overarching, or is it just a one-off effort?