AFGHANISTAN POLICE PROGRAM

'Afghanistan Police Program' is US-funded program, designed to train and equip the Afghan National Police (ANP). ^[1]

Contents

Overview

Program goals

Training

Funding

References

External links

Overview

At a Geneva conference on Afghanistan security in April 2002, the United States and other donor countries agreed to support the rebuilding of the security forces in post-Taliban Afghanistan. They established a “five pillars” approach, each to be led by a different nation. The United States took the lead to build the Afghan National Army (ANA). Germany took the lead for the police sector. The other pillars are the justice system (Italy), counternarcotics (Britain), and demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration (Japan).
The program calls for building the Afghan National Police by requiring a comprehensive, integrated approach that encompasses leadership training, sustaining institutions and organizations, and oversight and internal control mechanisms. It has rapidly evolved beyond just police readiness requirements and training to include sweeping institutional reform of the ANP through the Ministry of Interior.
The program won't be complete and successful until the Afghan criminal justice system, including law enforcement, judiciary, and
corrections, has matured and is synchronized and coordinated from the national to the local level such that laws are standardized and uniformly applied. In the short term the Afghan National Police will function more as a security force than as a law enforcement organization.

Program goals

The intended end state of the U.S.-funded ANP is an effective, well-organized, professional, multiethnic national police force that is trained and equipped to provide a safe and secure environment for the people of Afghanistan and a force committed to the rule of law. The ANP need to be led well, paid decent salaries, and trained and equipped to carry out their assigned security and law and order missions. The program’s goal is to establish a self sustaining
ANP – a police force able to attract and retain qualified candidates and to operate with minimal international assistance.

Training

Processes and systems have been put in place to enhance readiness and improve how police recruits are vetted, paid, assigned, and equipped.
Seven Afghan National Policemen graduated the first phase of ANP training, administered by Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and DynCorp International, on March 9 at the Nuristan PRT base of Kala Gush. The success of the program can be measured by the enthusiasm of the officers taking part in the course. A large number of the ANP in Eastern Nuristan Province, both new recruits and seasoned officers alike, will travel upwards
of five hours one way from remote and rugged areas just to receive the training.^[2]
According to the Afghan government, there are approximately 60,000 basic-trained ANP officers in the country, however it was recently called for another 20,000 officers to be trained in the next one or two years, making the total numbers to be at least 80,000.

Funding

International donors have financed the bulk of the Afghan budget. The Afghan government does not have the revenue to pay its police. The international community has established a mechanism to pay ANP salaries through the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, administered by the United Nations (U.N.) Development Program.
As of May 2006, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) funding for the ANP program approximates $1.1 billion for the period FY 2004-2007. Almost all of that funding has gone to the contract with DynCorp International.

References

1. Interagency Assessment of Afghanistan Police Training and Readiness (PDF)
2. Nuristan PRT brings professional training to ANP

External links

★ Website of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of State

★ DynCorp International home page