---

Afghanistan

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl. My colleagues on the Front Bench are here specifically to demonstrate to the House that the Government are working across the different departments to ensure that we deliver appropriately in the way that I described. There is a need to build military capacity and to support the Afghan army, civil society, economic development and growth, and democracy. All those things need to fit together and that requires the Government to think strategically with regard to themselves as well as in their approach to the country. I agree with what the noble Earl said about bureaucracy. It is important to get this right. In our aid programmes, we work directly through the Afghan Government, who work directly with local communities. One facet of that is to ensure that the NGO civic society on the ground is able to hold its own Government to account. That is a very important check and balance on the way that governments operate. I make no apologies for the Statement lasting for 15 minutes because, as the noble Earl said, this is an important matter.