“Right now, how many of you would want to go to Afghanistan to work on a development project?” asked Mike Brennan, Chief of the Afghanistan Competitiveness Project for The OTF Group. Brennan finished posing his question and looked around at a room of assembled Fletcher students. A dozen hands were raised.

“Now, one by one, explain to me why you want to go.” Thus began an interactive lunch session between Brennan, fellow OTF consultant Diego Etcheto, and the Fletcher community as part of the International Business Program’s Global Speaker Series.

The OTF Group is a consulting firm that helps some of the world’s poorest countries learn to compete in the global marketplace. Brennan and Etcheto had recently returned from Afghanistan, where they worked with top business leaders and government officials in an effort to help Afghanistan’s private sector find new opportunities.

Answering a barrage of questions from students, Brennan and Etcheto said that they felt Afghanistan was ripe for change.

“When we talk with the ministers and the vice president, they are all very optimistic about the country’s future,” Brennan believes.

Brennan stressed that optimism is crucial in a country that has been cursed by war, drought, and the Taliban. There are now a number of reasons for hope, including the relative effectiveness of President Karzai’s government, a committed stream of consultants and aid organizations, in the country, and the massive resources contributed by donors to help rebuild the country after thirty years of war.

It won’t be an easy road, however. Afghanistan has never been a prosperous country, and even today, a large percentage of Afghans live on less than 300 dollars per year. In the discussion, Brennan and Diego touched on a number of potential pitfalls likely to plague the country in the coming years.

“The biggest concern of leaders right now,” Brennan explained, “is that corruption will hold the country back.” He described a nation where the rule of law has not been fully established, tax revenues are not making their way back to the central government, and stability is still in question. And there are even more fundamental problems.

“Many Afghans don’t trust each other, after 30 years of war, they only trust people from their own clan or others that they know well.” Etcheto emphasized that this climate of instability and mistrust has created a crisis of confidence. “Many business leaders want to do one deal and then run. They simply aren’t interested in building a successful operation for the long term.”

Brennan explained that the basic premise behind OTF’s work in Afghanistan is that innovation at the firm level is a key element of national competitiveness. Rather than address macro-economic issues like trade, foreign direct investment, and corruption, OTF works with entrepreneurs and firms to develop strategies for growth at the microeconomic level. For consultants like Brennan, it means helping Afghanis learn to take full advantage of their country’s resources.

Assessing where Afghanistan can really compete is difficult because most ordinary Afghans do not have access to international markets; they simply sell raw products--granite, fruits, nuts, and carpets-- to neighboring states like Pakistan and Iran where they are refined and resold at a significant premium. To get a higher return, OTF is trying to help Afghans to both improve their products and reach out to more lucrative markets directly. It isn’t easy in a society where people are afraid to invest in the future because instability and war have been permanent fixtures in their lives.

Near the end of the session, Brennan asked students how they would invest their money in Afghanistan. Ideas flew from all corners of the room; English language schools, natural resource development, and transportation infrastructure were just a few of those mentioned. To Brennan and Etcheto, developing “human capital” through education was the key. In the rapidly changing international marketplace “what you need today may not be what you need tomorrow. Only effective leaders can see the differences.” OTF’s greatest challenge in Afghanistan, Brennan concluded, was convincing Afghans that the international marketplace was something under their control.

Article by Nathaniel Hoopes, MALD '06