Nemat, Orzala Ashraf (2015) Local governance in the age of liberal interventionism : governance relations in the post-2001 Afghanistan. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23663 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Local Governance in the Age of Liberal Interventionism: Governance Relations in the post-2001 Afghanistan Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Orzala Ashraf Nemat Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London September 2014 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 ABSTRACT This study critically examines and assesses the effects of two internationally sponsored local governance programmes formulated, designed and implemented by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), their purported aim to build village and district level institutions and change the way local populations shape their governance relations. The study adopts a set of theoretical lenses including hybridity and ethnography of aid combined with a historical political economy approach which aims to show how, mediated by local power structures and gender relations, these interventions unfolded in practice and had complex and unexpected outcomes on the ground. The study is the result of fourteen months field research conducted in Kabul (to look at national level processes), one village in Behsud, Nangarhar and two villages in Yakawlang, Bamyan. The study presents Afghan districts and villages as micro-site(s) of intervention, where central government programmes are only one among many interventions led by different national and international actors and institutions. The selection of local governance programmes by the two institutions is based on different (at times conflicting) rationales: MRRD’s programme followed ‘legal-rational’ bureaucratic logic, while IDLG, though following a similar logic in its policy papers, in practice was heavily influenced by the existing patronage-based networks related to the government’s key political elites. Furthermore, the international sponsors of these programmes supported these differing logics based on their short and long-term interests. The local actors embraced certain aspects of the interventions that furthered their interests in terms of capturing resources that strengthened their authority and resisted those aspects that challenged prevailing patrimonial power structures. Hence, studying these two examples generates insights into both the way power and gender relations work in Afghan society and the complex form of hybrid arrangements that emerges as a result of these encounters between international, national and local players. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This PhD thesis is the result of four years of work and as I reach this phase, I see it only as the beginning, rather than the ‘end’ of a long, at times frustrating, but generally educative and interesting process. As I worked on this thesis, the news of political developments and on-going violence at home became an unavoidable distraction, especially loss of colleagues and friends. Thinking about them has been part of this work as I continued writing. Nevertheless, the tremendous support and encouragement I received from my friends and family continued to inspire me to reach this point. There are several people and institutions that deserve my grateful thanks for supporting me in different ways to accomplish this work. I start with my supervisors, Professor Jonathan Goodhand and Professor Deniz Kandiyoti. Deniz has been a true inspiration and an academic mother to me; her help and guidance was crucial in the foundation of this thesis in the first year. I am honoured by and grateful for Jonathan Goodhand’s supervision for the rest of this period. I have benefited immensely from his intellectual guidance and am grateful for his exceptional patience with my, at times, slow progress and for being responsive under almost any circumstances to my questions. His guidance was crucial to this thesis, both theoretically and conceptually, including his great help correcting my lengthy sentences and editing some parts. This research would not have been possible without the generous financial sponsorship from the Research Council of Norway whose Grant 199437 supported the first three years of this PhD. Thanks also to the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) Norway for facilitating this and for their warm hospitality hosting me for six months at the CMI office in Bergen. At CMI, I especially would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Astri Surkhe, Torunn Wimplemen and Arne Strand for their tremendous friendship and support including Astri and Torunn’s help with reading my material and allowing me to learn from their enriching experiences and skills. I would like to acknowledge the Peace Training and Research Organisation (PTRO), Mirwais Wardak and his team for their tremendous support facilitating my research process and being my host organisation in Afghanistan. PTRO’s support also included help from three of their researchers Aref, Noor Rahman and Rasikh who assisted me during field research when I was in need of male colleagues for data collection in both locations. 4 I have looked at all aspects of this research as an immense process of learning, including what I learnt from my informants. I thank all the men and women of Qala-e- Janan Khan, Behsud and Katakhana and Akhundan, Yakawlang, and all informants for this study, whom were so generous with their time and willingness to share their stories and view. I would also like to thank senior government officials, particularly senior minister Amin Arsala, Dr. Ashraf Ghani the chairman of Transition and presidential candidate, minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar, minister Wais Ahmad Barmak, and Mr. Ghulam Jilani Popal for their generosity in sharing their wealth of experience and time with me. I would like to also acknowledge the MRRD and IDLG leaderships for their generous help in providing data and answering my questions. In Nangarhar and Bamyan, I would like to extend my thanks to Pohand Rashid Malikzai, Sayyed Ahmad (CCA), Najia Ishaqzai, Haji Ghulam Farooq and their respected families, Governor Habiba Sarabi, Sabira Jan for their friendship, warm hospitality and taking care of me during the field research. I would also like to acknowledge organisations for their support with facilitating some of my meetings: Cooperation Center for Afghanistan (CCA), The Tribal Liaison Office (TLO) and Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) for providing me with data from their studies and offering liaison help in Nangarhar and Bamyan. My friends, who kept me inspired and hopeful, shared their own wealth of experiences and thoughts so generously and continued their support in this process: Sarah Kamal deserves very special thanks for her true friendship and morale support, especially taking away the huge concern of accommodation in the expensive city of London during all these years and for reading my work and helping out with editing. I also thank Professor Huma Ahmed Gosh, Jolyn Leslie, David Page, Professor Barnett Rubin, Alex Strick van Linschoten, Liz Strick, Elisabeth Winter and many more friends in Afghanistan or aboard whom I have not named here but have been great supporters and enriched my thinking with their conservations and support in different ways. English is obviously not my first language and this is reflected in the way I have written this thesis. I would like to acknowledge editing support received at the very final stage from the amazing Sue Redgrave. She has been a terrific support in the most stressful i.e. final part of this work. However, I confirm that all mistakes and errors in this thesis are mine and only I am responsible for them. Finally, I would like to acknowledge and credit my family without whose support this challenging journey would have not been possible. I thank my parents Khaliq Nemat and Fahima Nemat and my siblings and their families for their endless support, care 5 and love all these years. I also thank my late grandparents; especially my Haji Baba who raised the educational bar one step higher for his grandchildren than his children. You and your memories have all been true sources of strength and inspiration all this time.