Quote Originally Posted by vertnyc View Post
I'm the Brigade Economic Development Officer for Task Force Stryker in Southern Afghanistan and I've done Zero Economic Development. I was sent to the University of Washington by the Brigade Commander for 6 months to learn about how to start small businesses in preparation for deployment to Iraq.

Anyways- fiscal discipline on the part of the military isn't good enough as other instruments of national power have programs which have budgets that I get the feeling "have to be expended" by a certain time. Which is bad. And it's really bad if you concentrate in only two Provinces and spend $240+ Million in the next 10 months.
Congratulations on your assignment... I was up the road near Herat in 08-09 doing HA/CA. You have the luxury (?) of US maneuver forces in your AO to check the CERP project sites. You are near or in Kandahar with ready access to cash.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/wo...m.html?_r=1&hp
Afghan Enclave Seen as Model to Rebuild, and Rebuff Taliban

A nice, easy way to ultimate victory Have you considered the National Solidarity Plan (NSP), Provincial Development Plan (PDP), the District councils, and the Community Development Councils? I worked with the US Envoy to Herat province and the USAID folks.

For my druthers, I'd rather hand off CERP for big projects to USAID (they have local staff) and return to the Emergency Response part of CERP.