When the elders of Garmser in the Afghan province of Helmand were seeking to restore security to the region, they asked the provincial governor for help to resume market gardening. Growing food would provide work for hundreds of people, support their families and provide an alternative to the Taliban. All they required was a modest amount of finance to restore water supplies and generate power – but at that time, in 2006, the governor had no funds to help.
For Brigadier Ed Butler, then commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, it was a tale he had heard time and again in his army career – in Iraq, in Africa and in the Balkans. In his view, government organisations and non-government organisations are good at long-term projects, but for quick, short-term intervention only companies have the agility and the entrepreneurial skills.
