Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan
"This is an Afghan process," Lt. Col. Gordon Phil lips began, "and I am here to make sure it goes smoothly. But the decisions are not mine. They are yours." A dozen members of this province's Provincial Council or Shura listened carefully as the interpreter translated into their native Pashto.

Phillips, the commander of the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team, or PRT, continued: "Don't think about money. Think about what you will need five years from now, about your children, and your grandchildren. I have other money, emergency money, which I can and will use if appropriate. Think about what Nangarhar needs."

For the first time in Afghan history, Afghans are about to set spending priorities for their localities, rather than accepting the crumbs that a king, warlord, or Kabul-appointed governor condescends to allow them. This process of writing Provincial Development Plans, which Lt. Col. Phillips described to the council members, has been going on throughout Afghanistan this July and August, and it promises to correct some of the more egregious failures of American aid here. At the least, it will put to rest the frequent charges--some warranted, some not--that we are giving the Afghans what we think they need rather than what they think they need, and listening to bureaucrats in Kabul rather than the people who will actually use the roads, bridges, dams, and irrigation channels being built.

"Shifting the emphasis to the provinces would help to redress the heavily skewed development expenditure that favors the urban areas and their vocal elite," says NATO ambassador to Afghanistan Daan Everts, who helped Kosovo get back on its feet.

Understanding the nitty-gritty of Afghan government is important to correct the cartoonish panorama of warlords, Taliban, and virtuous president that underlies the average American's picture of Afghanistan--a picture that is seriously misleading.

In Nangarhar, each of the 22 subdistricts is holding three days of community meetings in which local people set a list of development priorities. Phillips mentioned one meeting, in Kama district, that was attended by 71 villagers (males only, in this conservative area). The priorities of each district will be taken up to the provincial level and hashed out into provincial priorities by mid-August. Throughout the process, villagers and provincial officials are being mentored by development organizations working as contractors for the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

The Provincial Councils were elected in the fall of 2005, when Afghanistan had its first parliamentary elections, but it was only this spring that the councils began to meet regularly to assess local needs. The impetus came from the Army National Guard head, General Clyde A. Vaughn, who recognized that while the Provincial Councils have no formal budgetary or decision-making process, they are the closest thing to elected local officials that Afghanistan has.

Afghanistan has a poorly designed constitution, a chronic shortage of funds, and a lack of competent, honest officials. Mayoral and district elections are mandated in the constitution, but there has been no money to hold them; governors are appointed by the president, who can remove them more or less at will. (One respected governor, Abdul Sattar Murad of Kapisa, was removed from office three days after criticizing President Hamid Karzai in an interview with Newsweek.) So along with the members of parliament, Provincial Council members are the only officials who can make Afghans' local needs heard in the capital and beyond.