10.3 | Reconstruction: oil, commercial interests, debt relief, asylum and stabilisation policy

• begun a review of PRT management and support arrangements, comparing

Basra and Helmand (Afghanistan).595

938. The Basra/Helmand review was one of two Iraq-related reports produced by the

PCRU in 2006:

• ‘Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Iraq and Afghanistan –

A Comparison’;596 and

• ‘Refocusing civilian efforts in Basra in the run up to PIC [Provincial Iraqi

Control]’.597

939. In December 2007, the PCRU was renamed the Stabilisation Unit (SU), reflecting

the emergence of the broader concept of stabilisation and the Unit’s new role managing

a £269m MOD Stabilisation Aid Fund announced as part of the September 2007

Comprehensive Spending Review.598

940. The SU’s key tasks were:

• assessment and planning: helping departments “plan together so there is

a single UK aim and strategic framework”;

• deployments: providing experienced civilian personnel; and

• lesson learning: identifying and sharing best practice in the UK and

internationally.

941. Afghanistan was the principal focus. On 12 December, Mr Brown announced in

Parliament that the UK would make available £450m in development and stabilisation

assistance for Afghanistan for 2009-2012, part of which would help fund:

“… Britain’s new cross-government Stabilisation Unit, which has Afghanistan as its

first priority, and which, with a global budget of £260m over the next three years, will

drive forward reconstruction projects and provide expert civilian support to rebuild

basic services.”599

595 Minute Teuten to Drummond, 26 September 2006, ‘PCRU Directors’ Board Meeting: 2 October 2006’

attaching Paper PCRU, 27 September 2006, ‘PCRU Headline Achievements: August-September’ and

Paper PCRU, September 2006, ‘PCRU: Lessons Learning and Evaluation’.

596 Minute Teuten to PS/Minister(AF), 17 November 2006, ‘Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Iraq

and Afghanistan – A comparison’ attaching Paper PCRU, ‘Review of Provincial Reconstruction Teams

(PRTs) in Iraq and Afghanistan’.

597 Report PCRU/DFID, 19 December 2006, ‘Refocusing civilian efforts in Basra in the run up to PIC’.

598 Paper Stabilisation Unit, December 2007, ‘Stabilisation Unit’.

599 House of Commons, Official Report, 12 December 2007, columns 305-306.

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