The new SAT-A: now with 40% less effectiveness!

But just so you don't confuse the new looks-like-it's-gonna-be-sucktastic SAT-A with the old kicked-ass-with-little-fanfare SAT-A, they've given the new one a new name: the Canadian Governance Support Office. From what this article in Embassy magazine says, that's about all they've given it - other than a pile more money for a fraction of the staff:

The Governance Support Office, which was established in July, aims to build the capacity of Afghanistan's ministries and governmental agencies. To do this, it will embed civilians with expertise in fields such as education within the ministries themselves for extended periods.

The office will replace the Strategic Advisory Team, a team of Canadian military officers that has been attached to various Afghan ministries since 2005. The SAT, a creation of former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier, will be formally disbanded at the end of August.

According to a DND spokesman, the SAT had a total of 14 Canadian soldiers on its staff when it closed. Of these, three were at the SAT's head office in Kabul while 11 were posted within Afghan ministries. The SAT's budget was $1.33 million in fiscal year 2006-07, and $1.5 in 2007-08.

Oh, and about CANADEM? Called it. Yeah, yeah, it was a shot in the dark. But hey, if you're the blind squirrel, you do your end-zone dance when you find that one, lonely nut, right?

Mr. LaRose-Edwards said the Governance Support Office idea got off the ground when he submitted an unsolicited proposal to CIDA in April 2007. His initial request for $98 million over five years, he said, would have allowed CANADEM to staff the office with about 20 to 25 civilian experts for a period of five years.

This initial proposal was rejected.

Mr. LaRose-Edwards then submitted another proposal for $20 million over five years. When the final agreement was signed in July 2008, the program was given a budget of $12.2 million for five years.

...

The office's staff will be drawn from CANADEM's roster of more than 10,000 civilian experts willing to work in challenging international posts.

Mr. LaRose-Edwards said annual salaries upwards of $150,000 are often necessary to convince civilian development specialists to accept the risks of working in a warzone.

While welcoming the transfer of capacity building responsibilities from the military to civilians, opposition critics doubted whether a budget of $12 million will be enough to make a difference.

So, to recap: SAT-A won wide-ranging acclaim from both outside observers like other NATO countries, and from the Afghans themselves; it did it with a self-replenishing roster of enthusiastic military officers (I know of a case where two officers were pulling in flag-rank favours to see who would fill one available slot on the team); it did it on a nominal budget of $1.5M a year; and it did it with a staff of about fifteen souls.

The new CGSO is going to field seven or eight advisors; it's going to employ contractors rather than government employees; it's going to cost $2.44M a year; and - most importantly to my mind - it's going to have to start building its credibility up from scratch again.

Look, I'm not questioning the competence, the professionalism, or the courage of the CANADEM folks who will be putting their hides on the line to do the pointy-end job. In fact, I sincerely hope that they not only equal, but surpass the SAT-A in terms of effectiveness. Nothing would be better for both Canada and Afghanistan.

But, geez, whatever happened to 'if it ain't broke'? Numpties.

This has New Coke written all over it.