British and Danish soldiers help reconstruct Gereshk

The team works by gathering information on the needs of the community through local engagement, assessing infrastructure and generating development projects and cash-for-work schemes.

The concept is known as Civil-Military Cooperation, or CIMIC, and sees military teams operating in areas that are deemed unsafe for the civilian agencies that would normally carry out these types of tasks, although, over the last year, Gereshk has become one of the most stable areas in Helmand and is now considered by many to be the economic centre of Helmand province.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence in the Gereshk area is provided, under the command of Task Force Helmand, by the Danish Battle Group. Based in Forward Operating Bases Keenan, Armidillo and Sandford, and their Main Operating Base, Price, the Danes, working alongside the Afghan National Security Forces, are forcing the Taliban out of the area in order to allow governance and reconstruction to develop.

The British meanwhile have five Military Stabilisation Support Teams (MSSTs), developed in 2007 when Musa Qaleh was retaken from the Taliban, who carry out CIMIC tasks in order to help speed up reconstruction work and win the consent of the population. It was therefore decided to merge a British and Danish CIMIC team together and in October 2008 12 Danes and six British began to work in partnership.

The head of the Military Stabilisation Support Team Gereshk is Danish Major Anders Johansen, who explains the partnership:

"The integration of the British MSST into our CIMIC has been a great success. The combination of our CIMIC training and the Brits' many years experience as soldiers is working out really well. Also, they have provided some extra skills that we didn't have, such as a guy to work with structuring the intelligence- gathering and a constructional engineer. We complement each other really well."

Lieutenant David Joyce, Royal Navy, is responsible for the UK element of the MSST and, in partnership with Major Johansen and the Danish Battle Group, has overseen the integration to remove any duplication of effort and to focus attention in line with the Helmand Roadmap - the strategy for progress.

He works closely with the civilian Stabilisation Advisor from the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team, which is run from Lashkar Gah:

"Everything we do has to have a stabilisation effect at its core," says Lt Joyce. "I provide the military link between the Provincial Reconstruction Team Stabilisation Advisor and my team working in the area; taking the ideas and direction of the Stabilisation Advisor and turning them into physical actions on the ground."

Projects by the MSST include funding small bridges and wells, and making sure that there is clean drinking water for the local population, as well as bigger projects like water towers, roads, parks, and refurbishment of schools, health clinics and the local hospital. Effort is also put into fighting unemployment; in Gereshk this has meant hiring men to collect rubbish and for the cleaning of watering canals.

Lt Joyce says:

"Building bridges and schools is just one part of our mission here. We have to build the capacity and ability of the local government structures to take the lead and allow us to step away.

"We meet regularly with the municipal mayor to discuss the ongoing construction work within the district centre. He is very keen to progress reconstruction and stabilisation in this area but does not have the technical knowledge to monitor the work effectively. We are mentoring him on project management and are trying to show him the benefits that would be had from employing a municipal engineer.

"Small steps at the moment but we are seeing definite progress in his ability to manage the construction work in Gereshk - including a number that are totally Afghan-led and have had no input from us."

Major Johansen describes the bazaar in Gereshk as now full of life, the traffic as more and more chaotic, and the construction of compounds as increasing. All are signs of an increased sense of security and optimism in the area. He says:

"There hasn't been an attack in the city of Gereshk since August of 2008, and the last suicide bomber was back in June of 2008. This is a good indicator that the insurgents are not welcome and that ISAF are being viewed by the local nationals as a reliable alternative. The majority of Afghans do not wish to go back to the way things were in 2001.

"Our reconstruction efforts are a big problem for the insurgents. They live off support from the local nationals to provide them with safe houses and freedom of movement. If the local people deny them this, even in the face of intimidation, the insurgents are under pressure here."

Major Johansen also sees the benefits of the positive attitude towards the MSST in Gereshk:

"We get more and more intelligence reports about what the insurgents are planning to do, such as where they are planting IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices]. If we look at it over time, we can see a clear picture showing that the more projects we are getting done, the more intelligence we are able to gather."

One of the great benefits that the MSST brings to the district is the support delivered to the District Stabilisation Advisor. Lt Joyce explains:

"The Stabilisation Advisor is now able to look forward on a strategic level and focus more of his efforts on planning for the future; safe in the knowledge that I am dealing with the day-to-day stabilisation efforts here.

"Working in Gereshk has been a fantastic challenge - we are making every effort to win the consent of the local people here in the north. We are involved in some simple but large-scale construction projects here - this includes a brand new district centre building that will become the offices for the district governor, mayor and line ministry representatives in Gereshk that will give them a place from which to build governance from."