Dayuhan:

Like Mike, I think soldiers are just first responders, not builders or operators.

But the current set in Afghanistan, is, as I reckon it---5,000 civilian experts, based on a Carr Center figure, of which 1000 are US civs, set to "explode" to 1300. Most heavily hampered by movement security, resources, etc... so their ability to get out and about and o things in far-afield Afghan areas will always be very limited, even if security were no an overwhelming issue.

Fact is Afghanistan is remarkably logistically constrained. And the math of sending 1000 new civilians (plus terps and security) is fabuluous strain on the limited resource paths.

If thousands of new soldiers are coming soon (September accdg to Petreaus) they are going to be the major thrust and asset. If they don't move toward becoming effective first responders, then they must be there as guards to other first responders, doubling the logistical hurdle, and delaying responses.

My guess is that if there is a good reconstruction civ, he should be in Haiti very soon, so that military can move out, and back to primary AOs. In large part because, with limited training and support, they could easily do a more effective job of service expansion and aid delivery than a highly constrained civilian.

As for standardizing packages for schools, all over the US, school systems use uniform standards, but they are both locally built and with local design and materially. Establishing that, say a classroom, should be 500 square feet and generally a rectangle laid out for 20 or thirty students does nothing to affect local design, content, building materials or local labor and contracting opportunities.

On the other hand, recognizing that (1) about 30 percent of current afghan schools are tents of informal places for the 60% or so of eligible students currently enrolled (6 million), suggests that thousands of schools and classrooms may/will be built.

If there is a consolidated plan for desks, there is then a consolidated opportunity for local, regional and national desk manufacturing---rather than each NGO doing its own thing. And for specific amounts of books to be planned/made/delivered, and specific amounts of teachers to be trained/hired/housed by language/province/district/appropriateness.

From prior adventures, I believe a 20-30% efficiency and local content standard is a minimum goal. Mr. Ghani belives their is a 90% efficiency just by getting more national/local procurement focus. Given resource and logistical constraints unqique to Afghanistan, sending billions of dollars is not going to have POSITIVE effects so much as improving our efficiency of actual delivery (more planned and exploited local content, more dual use of military cross-trained for first responding).

First responding is, in most instances, no different than knowing when and how to call for a fire mission. You don't need to know how to fly or make artillery calculations.

But if soldiers are going to do COIN, and get to know and win relationships (if not hearts and minds), being able to coordinate basic services and assistance should be focused on the soldier in Afghanistan, and not the civilian (until way into the build phases).

I was once dispatched to assist an LTC assigned to Balad/DoS/PRT Satellite.
He was building relationships anyway he could with local folks. Bringing a higher ranking DoS grey-haired SME was not, we both agreed, the way to bolster his relationships or juice with the locals, and could, if not real careful, undermine it.

Translating the many missions and objectives in COIN in Afghanistan is no less easy. Better to have an empowered E-7 wiyth local juice and connections than a bunch of discordant civs/ngos undermining his shtick. No?

How do you really do this stuff effectively in the field?

As MA and Beelz both point out, standardizing and simplifying all this civilian aid/HA stuff is a well-trodden path for actual professionals in the field (UNDP, UNHCR, World Bank)---getting their basics and standards out there is the way to integrate and synchronize US civ and mil operations. Inventing new wheels takes up to much energy (and scarce logistics and head-space).

Steve