Afghanistan committee  It is a document drafted by people who are in the field. We have had strategic plans, and this is all that we required from Ottawa. We, the people working in the field, are the ones responsible for executing the strategic plan and adapting it to Kandahar. What do the six priorities mean in day-to-day life in Kandahar?

Afghanistan committee  I admit that there were conversations from time to time, but there was never a need for us to call upon our superiors. That's the benefit of having mission command, if you will, on the civilian side and on the military side, because our senior managers trust us to make those decisions and to come to an agreement with them.

Afghanistan committee  Displacement is an issue I'm quite familiar with. In a previous life I was director of humanitarian affairs and disaster response, so I had lots of meetings with UNHCR colleagues in Kandahar. There's a strong UN high commissioner for refugees present. They're the ones who are the lead agency in dealing with IDP issues.

Afghanistan committee  In Kandahar we've invested in facilitating returnee returns. We've helped establish a centre with UNHCR, and we've spent a lot of time working on IDPs. The number of IDPs has gone down in Kandahar over the last 16 months, which is quite interesting and something we've been trying to track.

Afghanistan committee  What you'll hear consistently from Kandaharis is an expectation that their government is going to deliver essential services and basic security to them. That's what they're looking for. Those are the things you hear over and over again. Different Kandaharis at different strata of that society mean different things when they say that, but those are the two common threads you hear consistently.

Afghanistan committee  I can't comment on FCM per se, because I left theatre in January. What I can say is that a focus on trying to engage that kind of expertise was important to us, is important to us. I spent a lot of time trying to encourage more presence from NGO partners, for instance, in southern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. For those of you who don't know me, who haven't met me--I know some of the committee members, as I had the opportunity to meet you in Kandahar--for 11 months, between February 2008 and January 2009, I lived in Kandahar as the representative of Canada in Kandahar, or the RoCK.