Pest Analysis of Afghanistan

Marketing Management

Assignment by: Arsalan Aziz Section B EMBA

Political Factors

Though it is still too soon after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 to assess the extent to which Afghanistans transition has produced durable achievements, seven years has provided sufficient time to determine that progress has been made. During this period, Afghanistans transition towards political, economic, and social stability has enjoyed some progress. From convening the Emergency Loya Jirga to presidential, parliamentary and provincial council elections, Afghanistans democratically-elected government, over the years, is working to become more responsive and accountable. Apart from these achievements, the country continues to face considerable challenges. Within the governance and development sphere, weak or no rule of law, corruption, and the complexity of the state-building process have become increasingly apparent. The political space to express dissenting political and other views has also contracted. On-going attacks on freedom of expression, particularly in relation to media and human rights activists, are linked to informal power structures and a pattern of impunity. This pattern is all the more disquieting as elections are scheduled to take place in Afghanistan in 2009. Finally, perhaps the greatest factor affecting the humanitarian situation has been the deteriorating security situation, particularly in the South, Southeast, West and East regions. The armed conflict, funded in large part through illicit cross-border trade, is increasingly characterised by the use of asymmetric tactics creating difficulties for the Afghan government to establish a continuous operational presence. Civilian casualties have also exacerbated matters creating local distrust and fear of international security forces.

Economic Factors

Afghanistans economy is recovering from decades of conflict. The economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. This is largely due to the infusion of international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector, and service sector growth. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan remains an extremely poor country, and is highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture, and trade with neighbouring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. Criminality, insecurity, and the inability to extend rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. A greater emphasis on the human rights dimensions of poverty (including more effort on eradicating social injustice and ending discrimination against women and minorities) is needed, allied with continuing donor aid and attention to significantly raise Afghanistans living standards from its current level, among the lowest in the world. International pledges made by more than 60 countries and international financial institutions at the Berlin Conference for Afghan Reconstruction in March 2004 reached over $8 billion for 2004-2007. While the international community remains committed to Afghanistans development, the Government will need to overcome a number of challenges. Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium trade generate roughly $4 billion in illicit economic activity and looms as one of the most serious policy concerns. Other long-term challenges include tackling discrimination, erasing inequality, budget sustainability, job creation, corruption, government capacity, and rebuilding war-torn infrastructure. The economy remains predominantly informal, with a large part (circa 40%) of its estimated $7 billion gross domestic product being generated by narcotics. Its vulnerability to external shocks is underlined by the impact of fluctuating oil and grain prices. The latter led the Government to issue an urgent appeal for assistance over the last winter for fear of public unrest at the steep rise in the price of bread. Fears of drought, poor harvests, and dependence on imports through Pakistan will likely continue. The government remains fully dependent on foreign budget support to finance its public investment programmes. Its ability to manage and disburse external financing is constrained by internal

administrative problems. The bulk of programme delivery takes place outside the national budget framework. Insecurity and poor legal protection inhibit private sector development and investment. However, a new initiative with strong backing from the Presidents office and the donor community has emerged on improving provincial governance, and performance indicators for the health and education sectors remain positive.

Social Factors

Civil war has brought a variety of social ills in Afghanistan, such as poverty, interethnic strife, inequality of women, and widespread thievery, kidnapping, and banditry. Blood feuds handed down through generations are legendary, and revenge is regarded as a necessary redress of wrongs. The civil war has strengthened these tendencies. The ongoing civil war had continued to kill, wound, and displace hundreds of thousands of civilians. Kabul has been largely without electricity since 1994. Water, phones, and sewage systems have been destroyed. Years of war have separated and impoverished extended families that traditionally cared for widows and fatherless children. Now many are left to fend for themselves. Some provinces began experiencing famine in the 1990s and diseases of malnutrition are being reported for the first time in decades. The culture of Afghanistan reflects its ancient roots and position as a crossroads for invading ethnic groups and traditions. Little the Afghans make is unattractive; even common grain bags to carry produce to market are often embroidered to make them more beautiful. A camel caravan of nomads often looks like a circus parade, with the animals decked out in woven finery. The Islamic traditions of fine calligraphy and graphic arts are evoked in the fine filigreed flourishes that decorate many buildings. Poetry and poets are revered. Although the people of Afghanistan may have been sorely stressed by centuries of warfare and a difficult environment, their arts have prospered nonetheless. Although the Afghan population is composed of many distinct ethnic groups, certain elements of their way of life are much the same. Characteristically, the family is the mainstay of Afghan society. Extremely close bonds exist within the family, which consists of the members of several generations. The family is headed by the oldest man, or patriarch, whose word is law for the whole family. Family honor, pride, and respect toward other members are highly prized qualities. Among both villagers and nomads the family lives together and forms a self-sufficient group. In the villages each family generally occupies either one mud-brick house or a walled compound containing mud-brick or stonewalled houses. The same pattern prevails among the nomads, except that tents replace the houses.

Settlements in Afghanistan with less than 100 houses number over 10,000 and those with 100 to 250 houses number about 1000. There are 53 urban centers that range in size from 2500 to 25,000 people. In the smaller villages there are no schools, no stores, nor any representative of the government. Each village has three sources of authority within it: the malik (village headman), the mirab (master of the water distribution), and the mullah (teacher of Islamic laws). Commonly a khan (large landowner) will control the whole village by assuming the role of both malik and mirab. Baggy cotton trousers are a standard part of the Afghan villager's costume. The men wear long cotton shirts, which hang over their trousers, and wide sashes around their waists. They also wear a skullcap, and over that, a turban, which they take off when working in the fields. The women wear a long loose shirt or a high-bodice dress with a swirling skirt over their trousers; they drape a wide shawl about their heads. Many women wear jewelry, which is collected as a form of family wealth. When urban women leave their houses they usually wear a burka or shadier, a long tentlike veil that covers them from head to foot. Women in villages seldom wear the burka, and educated urban women discarded the custom, especially under Soviet domination where it was regarded as backward. The diet of most Afghan villagers consists mainly of unleavened flat bread called nan, soups, a kind of yogurt called mast, vegetables, fruit, and occasionally rice and meat. Tea is the favorite drink. Village men work in the fields, joined by the women during the harvest. Older children tend the flocks and look after the smaller children. The village mosque is the center of religious life and is often used as the village guest house. Twice a year groups of nomads may pass through villages on their routes from summer highland grazing grounds to the lowlands where they camp during the winter. The villagers traditionally permit the nomads to graze their animals over the harvested fields, which the flocks fertilize by depositing manure. The nomads buy supplies such as tea, wheat, and kerosene from the villagers; the villagers buy wool and milk products from the nomads. For food and clothing, the nomads depend on the milk products, meat, wool, and skins of their flocks; for transportation they depend on their camels. Nomadic women are freer and less secluded than the village women.

A favorite sport in northern Afghanistan is a game called buzkashi, in which teams of horsemen compete to deposit the carcass of a large headless calf in a goal circle. Afghans also play polo and ghosai, a team sport similar to wrestling. The most important holiday in Afghanistan is Eid and Nowruz, or New Year's Day, which is celebrated on the first day of spring.

Technological Factors

The American troops in Afghanistans Helmand province are employing some new military technology in their counter-insurgency efforts. The Worlds Aaron Schachter reports on two examples of the updated technology the Stryker and something called the land warrior. LISA MULLINS: Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, thousands of US marines and British troops are staging major operations in town and province. The offensive is the first stage in President Obamas strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilize Afghanistan. The American troops in Helmand are employing new military technologies in their counter-insurgency efforts. The Worlds Aaron Schachter is embedded with the US army in Helmand right now. He tells us about two examples of the updated technology. The Stryker and something called the Land Warrior.

AARON SCHACHTER: The Stryker looks like some kind of post-apocalyptic vehicle, straight out of a Mad Max movie. Its an imposing mishmash of armor and steel grading, and a whole lot of firepower. In addition to massive machine guns, it can fling 40 grenades a minute more than a mile, and its eight wheels make it a good match for Afghanistans so-called roads, as well as the mountainous terrain in the north. Sergeant Charles Kennedy is with Alpha Company 423 Infantry Battalion Fifth Striker Brigade.

CHARLES KENNEDY: Its better than a humvee, more efficient, more mobile. We get from point A to point B a whole lot faster. It can, the cages on my side were made for RPGs, top of the RPG once it hits it, it disintegrates and the cage stops it from hitting the truck. The technologys updating a lot. We got long distance radios now instead of the humvee.

AARON: The insides pretty impressive as well. It holds 11 soldiers and a battery of computer hardware. Four screens give constant positions of troops in the field, and keep tabs on the vehicle itself. Thermal imaging lights up the night for a mile in all directions. In fact, because of the incessant

dust here, its easier to drive at night with the lights off. At more than $3 million each, the Stryker itself isnt new. It was first deployed in Iraq, but its been outfitted with new gear and made to work with a new type of combat soldier, demonstrated by first lieutenant Adam Smith.

ADAM: The biggest thing is you get an idea of where the friendly elements are in the battlefield, and you do that through, you got a little TV screen here over your eye, and therell be just little icons in there, showing you where they are relative to your position and then you can send them text messages inside theres a little keyboard on this. And thats the biggest thing about it is, providing you with some idea of where your guys are on the ground.

AARON: In the past commanders relied on radio traffic over different networks to keep track of their troops. With the Land Warrior, everyone knows whats going on at once. Some soldiers say the extra ten pounds is more burdensome than helpful, but Lieutenant Colonel Wade Blackwell says most soldiers just dont understand how far the military has come. When he joined nearly 20 years ago for example, there were only line of sight walkie-talkies. Now soldiers are as networked as if they were in a modern office. Blackwell commands the Third Battalion 82nd Aviation Regiment. Hes got soldiers in the dangerous province of Southern Helmand.

WADE BLACKWELL: If a ground soldier can see first, meaning he can see the enemy before he sees him, if he can talk to his people, if he can decide and he can start action before the enemy does, then hes got a tremendous advantage. We call it a common operations picture, that means that the guy on the ground is seeing what the guy at the headquarters is seeing.

SOURCES:

Analysis made by UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS).

- The UN defines eight regions for planning purposes: Central Highlands, Eastern, Southeastern, Southern, Western, Northern, and Northeastern, plus the capital region around Kabul

- http:/pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3038/images/fig.1final.jpg.