by Connie K. Duckworth

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

- Albert Einstein

“Systems thinking” is about understanding how individual component parts influence each other within a whole framework. In a science lab, for example, systems thinking can be easily observed when small amounts of a catalyst create big chemical reactions.

This kind of thought process is equally applicable to the realm of international development and reconstruction. Without knowing the technical term, ARZU has used a systems thinking framework since 2004. Our approach to sustainable community development rests on the three-legged stool of income, education, and basic healthcare—needs that are interrelated.  Three legs make for stable seating. Add a fourth leg, like clean water, and you’ve got long-term comfort.

Traditional international development is not based on systems thinking. Rather, it tends to focus on solving a single problem at a time, typically without cultural context. Try perching on a one-legged camp chair. While it may provide a temporary alternative to standing, it’s a pretty wobbly short-term solution.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story over the weekend about the U.S. military’s plan to expand tenfold the Afghan Local Police to compensate for the absence of the regular Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police in rural areas. The idea is that U.S. Special Forces will train “lightly armed” village units to both help keep the Taliban at bay and gather intelligence locally.

This interesting new approach takes advantage of traditional tribal structures and empowers tribal elders. With some tweaking and a bit more systems thinking, the ALP might actually work, in sharp contrast to the ANA and ANP, which are ineffective, riddled with corruption and drug use, and cost the U.S. taxpayer more than $10 billion/year. (According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the fiscal 2011 budget is actually $11.6 billion.)

So why does the Afghan military so badly underperform? According to the DOD, 86% of the roughly 250,000 soldiers and police can’t read or write. The colonel with direct oversight over that $11.6 billion training budget says that literacy “will continue to be a challenge especially as we’re now going to start building those enablers like logistics, communications, engineers.” Theses skills happen to be critical to ever effecting a successful transition which will allow the troop drawdown, currently planned to begin in July 2011. “It’s hard to teach somebody logistics and to do inventory control, if they don’t know how to read. If you want to be a policeman and you know they can’t even write down a license plate because they don’t know what numbers are – and so we have to overcome that challenge.”

To address the enormity of this problem, a literacy program has been rolled out for the eight weeks of basic training at some, but not all, locations, with the stated purpose “to bring an Afghan soldier and police up to a third-grade level, which is considered kind of basic literacy – you can write your name, you can write and read numbers. You can do some basic reading.” Clearly, nobody can become competently literate in eight weeks. Systems thinking this is not.

ARZU offers fair wage jobs to women in exchange for a commitment that they attend literacy classes two hours/day, six days a week, on an ongoing basis. Outcomes tell the story of this holistic approach: ARZU weavers are now in fifth grade. They can do a lot more reading and writing and arithmetic than signing their names. Just imagine the possibilities for Afghanistan if the same had been required of the ANA and ANP—they would have graduated junior high by now.

The current opportunity exists to transform the lives of tens of thousands of new ALP recruits, while creating a security force in Afghanistan that is actually skilled and competent. By all means give them the job, but simultaneously start them in daily mandatory literacy classes.  You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

Tags: Afghan Local Police Afghan National Army Afghan National Police Afghanistan ARZU STUDIO HOPE economic opportunity empowerment international development sustainable community systems thinking U.S. Department of Defense U.S. military Wall Street Journal

This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 12:23 pm and is filed under afghan people, afghan women, economic sustainability, sustainable economic development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.