63,380 former officers and soldiers of the officially recognized Afghan Military Forces (AMF) enrolled in the UN Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program. The process of disarming the AMF came to a close on the 11 July 2005 when the last medal of Honor was presented. The former AMF  personnel went on to enter the Reintegration phase of the program. Those entering hoped that it would provide them with an opportunity that would enable them to successfully reintegrate into civilian life as valuable members of their community and have the means to economically fulfill their realistic aspirations.  Some Former Combatant's (FC's) had been continuously involved in on going conflicts for over twenty years and were simply tired of fighting. many just wished for a quiet life where they could earn enough to provide for the day to day needs of their families and spend time with them in the evenings and at weekends.

The UN DDR Program had three goals and one objective. The first goal was to ensure that the AMF entered the program as part of the disarmament phase. The second goal was to break the historic patriarchal chain of command that existed between the former commanders and their men. The third was to provide the demobilized personnel with the ability to become economically independent and in charge of their own destiny. The goals would in turn contribute towards reinforcing the authority of the Government by completing one of the five Bonn initiated Security Sector Reform Pillars. The UN DDR Program was however, never mandated to disarm the AMF – everyone knew that they did not hand in all of their weapons.

The Reintegration phase of the United Nation's Development Program's (UNDP's), Afghanistan 's New Beginnings Program (ANBP) will conclude in June 2006 but it was a short term initiative – Reintegration is a mid to long term process. The most difficult and important phase of the DDR process is Reintegration. Its success will be the benchmark in the mid to long term upon which the DDR program in Afghanistan will ultimately be judged.

Looking Beyond the “R”
Through its Looking Beyond the “R” Initiative, USAID/Afghanistan funded pilot initiatives that provided creative, market led, solutions that would, if adopted as part of a national program, assist DDR personnel graduating from the UN program beyond in the mid to long term. The Programs' developed under the “Looking Beyond the R” initiative were intended to complement and further the short term reintegration assistance provided by ANBP by building upon the $700 package of training, tools and/or stock that the individual received.

USAID/Afghanistan piloted, trialed and assessed initiatives that should, in future, be considered, and if appropriate, incorporated into new DDR programs from day one and run in the mid to long term.  The Pilot projects identified and provided additional capacity, leverage and or sustainability that would improve the chances of the demobilized personnel successfully reintegrating. In the short term, it is easy to appear to succeed when the FC is hopeful and optimistic and able to live off the yoke of the reintegration package but it is when the FC enters the mid term, when the benefits begin to wear thin and the optimism fades, that the Reintegration phase enters the potentially most difficult and vulnerable period – with no one to turn to, to provide assistance. Up to 90% of new firms in the western world fail in their first year, no DDR program can afford for its clients to fail.

The DDR focused pilot projects, thoughts and activities comprised

• Employment and business assistance
  DDR focused Employment Assistance Centers(EAC) successfully operated in the northern and central regions acting as advocates providing linkages for DDR'd personnel. DDR'd personnel were able to use the EAC's as a resource to register when seeking work and to obtain assistance, counseling and access to additional support services such as on going business advice  – book keeping, literacy, etc. The EAC's also acted as focal points for contractors that accepted priority preference clauses and were required to identify a percentage of qualified DDR personnel to staff their contracts. In parallel a micro contracting initiative worked closely with several DDR businesses to assist them to secure contracts from international organizations to demonstrate the impact that such contracts have when targeted directly at the grass roots. A separate pilot developed a one to one executive placement program to assist the Commanders that were participating in the twenty four month Commanders Incentive Program’s Redundancy package.
  
• Finance
  A $4m loan guarantee program, was established offering small to medium loans starting from $3,000, that in turn required borrowers to employ a percentage of DDR'd personnel in proportion to the amount borrowed; at the other end of the spectrum two dedicated Micro finance initiatives were established to enable DDR’d self employed business men to obtain the capital needed to develop their business and demonstrate their credit worthiness.
• Market intervention
  Three key predicted growth areas in the future will be labor migration, tourism and mineral mining. A small labor migration pilot will send DDR personnel overseas and develop the systems to allow the private sector to continue the services into the future. Proposals were developed but not implemented for tourism and mineral mining. The geographical spread and current informal involvement of FC’s in the practice suggested that the two sectors were areas where further work could be done to identify legitimate  long term employment opportunities for FC’s.
  
• Added value
  A small poplar farming project has been funded that appears to significantly boost a farmers income to enable him to prosper in the mid to long term and legitimately compete with those tempted to consider growing illegal crops and earn significantly more then they would if they produced wheat. At the same time, a Commanders' IT course was funded providing added value to the CIP's Course by introducing additional skills for those commanders attending ANBP’s three week residential course.
  
  More can be done in the mid to long term at little extra cost to assist those in the process of reintegration. This is essential to ensure that the initial investment of $142m leads to a long lasting legacy.