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CPI Central Asia Newsletter
March 2002 |
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We are pleased to present the second monthly update for CPI Central Asia, informing our users of the latest developments on the website.
The Conflict Prevention Initiative (CPI) internet portal on Central Asia was launched by the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) in December 2001 to offer reliable and updated news and analysis on the political, humanitarian and security situation in the region. Other web portals on Nepal and Indonesia have also been developed by the Conflict Prevention Initiative.
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New Policy Brief on Afghanistan
On March 13, the Program published its latest policy brief, Afghanistan: A New Era of Humanitarian Assistance, on the Central Asia portal.
While a new availability of political and economic resources represents a long-awaited engagement of the international community in Afghanistan, many of the problems that have plagued past humanitarian operations have re-emerged there unscathed. Humanitarian aid agencies keen to operate in Afghanistan's well-funded, high-profile environment are now rushing to the region, often paying scant attention to the necessities of coordination, the need to build on current capacity, or to thoroughly analyze Afghanistan's complex environment. What's more, the new attention comes amidst an operational infrastructure that cannot properly manage these new resources.
The new HPCR policy brief is a first critical analysis of the new phase of humanitarian aid efforts in Afghanistan with a view to offering some guidance to aid agencies and donors. Based on a series of interviews conducted with practitioners and policy makers from January to March 2002, the brief asserts that humanitarian actors need to reassess their priorities, strategies and procedures if the current efforts are to be effective.
The policy brief can be viewed at
http://www.preventconflict.org/portal/centralasia/Brief4vol1.pdf
Previous policy briefs produced by the Harvard Program on Afghanistan:
Key Challenges for Recovery in Afghanistan
The Role of Islam in Shaping the Future of Afghanistan
Internal Displacement in Afghanistan: In Search of Safety
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The Harvard Program is planning to undertake a series of new activities in the coming weeks with the goal of contributing to the peace consolidation and rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan.
As part of these activities, the Program will facilitate a series of roundtable discussions with Afghan civil society representatives in the Central Asia region in an effort to identify key issues that need to be addressed to enhance the security of communities in Afghanistan.
The outcome of these roundtables will be summarized by the Harvard Program in a series of short policy briefs, which will be posted on the Central Asia portal in English, Dari and Pashto in the second half of April.
These policy briefs will also constitute the starting point for an Internet-based conference facilitated by the Conflict Prevention Initiative on the Central Asia portal. The E-conference is scheduled to take place for some 10 days in late April 2002.
The purpose of the online conference is to extend the scope of the roundtable discussions beyond the region and to engage, in particular, the Afghan diaspora, the aid and policy communities, scholars and international experts on critical aspects of issues concerning security in Afghanistan.
The conference will provide an opportunity to explore the use of IT for a policy-oriented dialogue and will give a greater voice to field and operational perspectives on key policies of the rehabilitation process.
To date, CPI has conducted two successful online conferences, respectively on Nepal and Indonesia.
Following the E-conference on Afghanistan, the Program will publish a conference report on the outcome of the dialogue and will post it on the Central Asia portal in three languages.
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Issue Articles
Since our February Newsletter was published a month ago, we have continued to expand the issues database of the Central Asia portal with over 150 new articles. The database now contains over 1,700 documents.
In order for the Central Asia portal to further serve its users as a "one-stop shop" for information and analysis, we encourage organizations as well as individuals to submit documents to CPI for posting on the portal. Documents can be submitted to: cpi_hpcr@hsph.harvard.edu
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