Germany is to substantially increase its commitment to the training of Afghan police officers. The number of districts in which Afghan police officers are trained under the scope of Focused District Development (FDD) is to be increased from three to ten by the end of this year. The Federal Foreign Office has today made available an additional EUR 7.5 million for this purpose. The aim is to substantially up the number of German police trainers in Afghanistan; the Federal Ministry of the Interior is aiming to triple the number to 200 by 2010.

Germany began providing training for police officers at district level along the lines of the FDD model in January 2009. The German contribution complements the work of the European police mission, EUPOL Afghanistan. An FDD cycle (evaluation of the district, training, follow-up support) lasts around 10 months and is supported by a Police Mentoring Team (4 police officers, 4 military police officers, 2 interpreters). Training programmes are currently ongoing in the Dedahi, Kholm and Balkh districts in Balkh province. This increase in funding and personnel means that the Federal Government's commitment can be expanded to further districts in Balkh province as well as to Badakhshan and Kunduz provinces.

All in all, the Federal Foreign Office's contribution to civil reconstruction in Afghanistan in 2009 is thus being raised to EUR 108.4 million. Since the end of the Taliban regime in 2001, the Federal Government has made available a total of more than EUR 1.2 billion for development and reconstruction in the country.