10.3 |
Reconstruction: oil, commercial interests, debt relief, asylum and
stabilisation policy
•
expansion
and refocusing of the SU, under Director-level leadership, to
become
the single
government delivery unit for civil effect with an enhanced
planning
capacity
and rapid response capability;
•
DFID to
take increased responsibility for the SU and the CSC;
•
the SU to
lead delivery of civil effect on operations, but conflict and
regional
policy to
remain a joint Cabinet Office/FCO/DFID/MOD
responsibility;
•
establishment
of a cross-Whitehall Civil Service Stabilisation Cadre
(CSSC),
initially
of at least 200 personnel;
•
development
of a new International Police Assistance Group (IPAG);
•
creation of
a Stabilisation Volunteer Network (SVN) to widen substantially
the
range of
potential volunteers available; and
•
the MOD to
identify members of the Armed Forces Volunteer Reserves
with
relevant
skills to be available to deploy as part of the CSC.
955.
The review
made no specific recommendations on enhancing
multilateral
stabilisation
capacity, but stated:
“A
significant UK commitment to develop enhanced national civilian
capabilities …
will put us
in a stronger position to argue for ambitious new capability
targets for
civilian
deployable capacity, and to galvanise other contributions to
improve the
effectiveness
of multilateral stabilisation and early recovery
capabilities.”
956.
The review
explained that previous efforts to strengthen capabilities had
“lacked
the
strategic drive, authority and resources to overcome the obstacles
encountered”.
Short-term
operational requirements had diverted attention from medium-term
capability
development.
An implementation team would therefore be set up before the end
of
February.
957.
Sir Gus
O’Donnell commented on 20 January that, while he agreed with the
report,
it
had:
“… taken
some time to get inter-departmental agreement on the way ahead
…
I hope that
departments will now be able to devote the energy and resources
to
this issue
which will be essential if we are to have significant progress to
report
on delivery
of real capability when the update of the National Security
Strategy
is published
before the Summer Recess.”607
958.
Ministers
agreed the recommendations in the Cabinet Office review
on
959.
Dr Nemat
Shafik, Sir Suma Chakrabarti’s successor as DFID
Permanent
Secretary,
replied to Sir Gus O’Donnell on behalf of DFID, the FCO and
the MOD.
607
Letter
O’Donnell to Gould, 20 January 2009, ‘Civil Effect’.
608
Letter
Shafik to O’Donnell, 16 February 2009, ‘Civil Effect’.
519