Tajikistan: Pentagon Looks to Become Engine for Economic Stabilization in Central Asian State

A Pentagon-funded aid program to Tajikistan will aim to promote economic development in some of the most neglected parts of the country over the next three years, in an attempt to "prevent the rise of another Afghanistan."

The program, called Tajikistan Stability Enhancement Program, will spend $7.1 million over the three-year span to help small communities work to identify development needs like road repairs, agricultural equipment or aid to small businesses, and then help to fund the projects.

The funds for the program will come from the US Department of Defense, under a program initiated in 2006 to help development in areas vulnerable to instability. Projects in Somalia, Haiti, Colombia and Yemen have already been funded under the program. The Tajikistan initiative will be the first time that Pentagon stabilization funds have been used in Central Asia.

The US Agency for International Development, which will administer the Pentagon's Tajikistan plan, says that such an initiative is needed to promote stability in a vulnerable and strategic region. "Developing social stability in Tajikistan, through jobs, schools, and healthcare, is the key to establishing stability and security in this critical region and preventing the rise of another Afghanistan," the agency wrote in a document inviting contractors to apply for the program.

The extreme cold of the winter of 2007-2008, "combined with government mismanagement of resources," created dire conditions in Tajikistan, the document stated. "Beyond the consequences for the national population, instability in Tajikistan could have a negative impact on the broader region including Afghanistan. A successful Afghanistan requires good neighbors. Iran and Pakistan pose obvious challenges but instability in Central Asia, which borders Afghanistan to the north and east, could also imperil progress."

"Unfortunately the possibility of Tajikistan devolving into instability is more pronounced after a series of debilitating events this past year," the document continued. "Tajikistan needs urgent stabilization assistance in order to prevent the further deterioration of social conditions, to stem the growth of Islamic extremism, and to combat persistent drug flows."

The program will focus on some of the most remote parts of Tajikistan: the Ferghana and Rasht valleys, and the border with Afghanistan. These rural areas are underserved by the government, USAID says. "Tajikistan's government is at a tipping point -- it is incapable of providing basic essential services to most of its people, particularly the large, marginalized rural population," according to the document.

Under the program, community groups will get together and decide what their local priorities are. They will then have to provide 25 percent of the project cost, either in direct funding or in labor or building materials. "It's basic democracy, too, because people vote, they debate, they discuss the projects they want," said a US government official with responsibility for assistance programs in Tajikistan, speaking on condition of anonymity. USAID aims to work with 50 communities, implementing at least one project in each community, in the first year.

The Pentagon is also providing $2.8 million for a community policing effort. The total of $9.9 million in funding will increase the amount of development aid the US provides to Tajikistan by about 10 percent, the official said.

"Tajikistan is the poorest of the Central Asian republics, it always has been, and the civil war just devastated a lot of the infrastructure and it's never been able to pull itself out. And there's a renewed interest in helping the people of Tajikistan," the official said.