Norway in Afghanistan: Economic and militarily contribution

Norway has been assisting Afghanistan for decades. Today the Norwegian contribution is approximately NOK 750 million (USD 120 million) annually, and Afghanistan is now among the top three recipients of Norwegian development assistance. Norway is also engaged militarily in Afghanistan, and approximately 500 Norwegian men and women in uniform are under ISAF command in Afghanistan.

Norway is one of the main contributors to the multi-donor Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), which is administered by the World Bank. This assistance goes towards implementing national priority programmes managed by the Afghan Government. The fund is central to building Afghan capacity and to enabling Afghans to take charge of their development and state-building process. The fund also ensures good coordination between the donors.

In addition to ARTF, the Norwegian Government supports programmes in the following three priority areas to complement the efforts of other donors: good governance, education and rural development. Norway also supports gender mainstreaming and provides humanitarian assistance. It is important for Norway to ensure that all of our efforts are in line with the priorities of the Afghan Government as set out in the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

Facilitate development
The main Norwegian military contribution is to ISAF’s Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the Faryab province, where Norway has been lead nation since 2005. In addition to the military component, the PRT has a civilian component led by a civilian coordinator, which also includes police liaison officers, prison officers, a political advisor and a development advisor. The task of the military part of the PRT is to promote a good security environment in the Faryab province and to facilitate development and reconstruction. Approximately 20% of the total Norwegian contribution goes to Faryab.

Norway attaches great importance to capacity-building within the Afghan National Security forces, and has provided two Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLTs) to ISAF, one in the Faryab province and one in Mazar-e-Sharif. Twenty-three Norwegian police officers are engaged in police training and mentoring through the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL Afghanistan), UNAMA and a bilateral police training programme.