Final evaluation Netherlands participation in ISAF 2006 - 2010

ealistic security plan for Uruzgan province and lobbied to implementnational programmes for capacity build-up of security troops in Uruzgan.During the mission, the Netherlands made a substantial contribution at thenational level of EUR 22.6 million to the ANA Trust Fund, managed byNATO, for strengthening the Afghan army. The funding was intended forprocurement of non-lethal materiel.One important national programme for the funding of the police force wasthe Law and Order Trust Fund Afghanistan (LOTFA). The LOTFA has beenfinancing the build-up of the police apparatus (Afghan National Police[ANP]) since 2002. The LOFTA was managed by the UNDP. The core tasksof the fund were the payment of police salaries, capacity development ofthe police force and the Ministry of the Interior, improvement of the police’sequipment and infrastructure, lending support to the prison service andincreasing the number of women in the police force. Police salariesaccounted for approximately 90% of LOFTA’s total budget. The mostimportant contributors to the budget were Japan, the United States, theEuropean Commission, Canada and the Netherlands. During the June 2008conference in Paris, the Netherlands pledged a contribution of EUR 10million for the 2008-2011 period, that it has since paid.From 2007, the 4 th Brigade of the 205 th Corps of the Afghan army was alsopresent in Uruzgan. During the mission, this Afghan military presence wasincreased to include four infantry kandaks 12 and two support kandaks. AnISAF Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) was attached to eachunit to advise and mentor the unit in the execution of its operational tasks.In Uruzgan, these OMLTs were provided by the Netherlands, France, theCzech Republic and Australia. Afghan units were coupled with ISAF units asmuch as possible in order to better enable them to operate autonomously inthe future. As much as possible, operations were prepared and executedcollectively. Later on during the mission, the Afghan units planned andexecuted their operations independently on a more regular basis. Examplesof this are the security operations surrounding the 2009 presidentialelections and the 2010 parliamentary elections. The Afghan army showed astrong qualitative improvement owing to the mentoring of the OMLTs andthe partnering with international units. Particularly during 2009 and 2010,increasingly larger operations were prepared and executed by the Afghanarmy, with ISAF units shifting from a leading role to an advisory role.Right from the beginning of the mission, there was also a focus on thebuild-up of a sound police apparatus in Uruzgan. After the extension of themission in 2007, the Netherlands’ focus on the Afghan police intensifiedand, from that moment onwards, policy centred more on the build-up of thepolice force in terms of quality. At the start of the mission, the capabilitiesof the police in Uruzgan were very limited. From 2006, PRTs conductedpolice training courses. Between 2006 and 2008, approximately 1,000Afghans were trained for service in the Afghan National Auxiliary Police(ANAP), which became part of ANP in 2008. The idea of an auxiliary policeforce of low quality turned out to be an unstable concept and the ANAPshowed a large turnover of personnel. What remained of the ANAP wasincorporated into the ANP. The Netherlands was an advocate of thedeployment of EUPOL, the European Police Mission, in Uruzgan. EUPOLarrived in the province in 2009 and has since contributed to increasing thecapabilities of ANP commanders in the area.12 A kandak is an Afghan army unit of battalion size with a strength of approximately 600 men.Page 44 of 133