Despite obligating $7.8 billion for counternarcotics efforts since 2002, the United States has only been able to provide “tangential” support to the Counternarcotics Police of Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction highlighted in its latest quarterly report released today.
“U.S. assistance to the provincial units of the Counternarcotics Police of Afghanistan cannot be tracked and that the United States cannot determine whether its investment in these provincial units has helped them become a capable, self-reliant and sustainable force,” John Sopko, SIGAR’s special inspector general, noted in the report.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that 209,000 hectares were used to grow opium poppy in 2013, Afghanistan’s highest production of opium since 2007. And with resources redirected to election security, eradication of poppy farms dropped 63 percent this year to just 2,692 hectares.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.