During his 30-year career working with humanitarian aid organizations in countries around the world, Anders Fänge demonstrated an exceptional depth of understanding, compassion, and engagement with local communities. He also earned a reputation for his common sense and practical approach to getting things done. "You need to be tough, to be straight," he said. Fänge spent most of his career as the director of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), which SPP Professor of Practice Robert Templer described in his introductory remarks, as "still one of the most effective organizations" in Afghanistan.
Fänge first traveled to Afghanistan as a journalist in 1981. He explained that he learned quickly that "there are always different answers" to every question, and that in Afghanistan in particular "the coin has five or six sides, not two." He explained that one of the reasons that SCA was so effective was that it worked slowly and deliberately to gain the trust and build a working relationship first with local authorities, and then with local communities. In the summer of 1984, Fänge himself walked 2,000 kilometers in Afghanistan. It was during this and subsequent journeys that he learned that you have to listen to different people, and get the different – and sometimes contradictory – stories. "Slowly, slowly, you gain trust," he said. Fänge urged the importance of having a "zero tolerance for corruption" and for telling the truth. "If you are uncertain [about something], stress this," he said.
As director of SCA, Fänge worked closely with many Taliban officials. He noted that when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they put an end to the lawless and chaotic period of the civil war and "commanders' rule" (1992-94). "Things became more predictable."
When the SCA publicly announced that it was running girls' schools in areas controlled by the Taliban, Fänge (as director of SCA) was accused by some of being a Taliban sympathizer. "I found them [the Taliban movement] to be unusually coherent, and well coordinated especially compared to other rural movements in Afghanistan," he said. He also learned in his dealings with the Taliban that "what you don't mention officially doesn't exist." Fänge gave one particularly compelling example of this: the willingness of many Taliban officials to permit the existence of rural schools attended by tens of thousands of girls despite an official Taliban ban. "There were more girls in school in some rural areas under the Taliban than at any other time in Afghan history," said Fänge.
Commenting on more recent developments in Afghanistan, Fänge decried the widespread existence of "big corruption," which he blamed primarily on the heroin business and the diversion of development aid from the international community. He noted that although petty corruption "has always been there," current levels of corruption in Afghanistan were unprecedented and especially harmful. For this and other reasons, Fänge said that he had moved in the last year from being a "careful optimist" to a "careful pessimist."
Fänge said that it was particularly challenging to build a functioning state in Afghanistan today noting that many people including some from within the government benefit from the current chaotic situation, and are not in favor of establishing law and order in the country. "They don't want a functioning state," he said. Fänge said that it was easier to build states in seventeenth century Europe. "It is more difficult now. In some cases, impossible."
Anders Fänge, George Soros Visiting Practioner Chair, made his remarks during a conversation with SPP Professor of Practice Robert Templer at the School of Public Policy, Central European University, on February 8, 2016.
Watch a short interview with Anders as well as his conversation with Robert Templer below.