Afghanistan received unexpectedly high levels of development assistance at a two-day international conference in London this week, but the Afghan government and some observers argue that Afghanistan itself needs to play a greater role in overseeing the funds.
Delegates from 64 countries and 11 international organizations to the January 31-February 1 conference pledged to contribute a total of $10.5 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan over the next five years. The sum includes about $2 billion in rollover funds from previous Tokyo and Berlin aid conferences.
Stressing its commitment to Afghanistan's reform process, the US kept its aid package at $1.1 billion for 2007 or about $4 billion over the next three years, the single largest amount donated. "The United States is fully devoted to the long-term success of Afghanistan," US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told conference participants, echoing President George W. Bush's State of the Union declaration that the US is "on the offensive" in Afghanistan. "For us, this is a strategic partnership."
The United Kingdom pledged nearly $885 million over the next three years to the aid package. Turkey, which has an extensive presence in Afghanistan through Turkish private contractors, elected to boost its aid ten-fold, from $10 million to $100 million. The total amount of aid pledged "is well in excess of what was expected," a United Nations official at the conference commented.
Afghan officials described the pledged funds as a vote of confidence in their ability to implement reforms. "We are confident that with this kind of support, we will be able to build a very democratic society with a free market economy," Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi said.
Pundits argued that the number of high-level officials in attendance illustrated the international community's continued interest in rebuilding Afghanistan. Aside from US Secretary of State Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, European Union Commission officials and the foreign ministers of China, Australia, France, Pakistan, Russia, Iran and Turkey were among the participants. Three Central Asian states, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, and Tajikistan, were represented by their respective foreign ministers, while Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan sent ambassadors.
Keeping a close eye on how pledged funds will be put to work was a clear priority for delegates, however. Throughout the event, President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah emphasized that international aid could be more effectively used if it is channeled through the Afghan government itself rather than through international non-governmental organizations, aid agencies and consultancy companies.
At a January 31 joint press conference with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Karzai called for the Afghan government to take "more [of a] leading role in [the] formulation and implementation of international aid efforts." The presence of multiple international agencies and institutions in Afghanistan with often overlapping operations has caused "a bit of anarchy," Foreign Minister Abdullah told delegates. "We want to increase Afghan ownership. We are not naive now. If we did not know [about these things] four years ago, today we have got a bit of knowledge," he said.
The concern appears to be shared by some members of the international community. In a January 31 interview on the BBC2 television news program Newsnight, Alastair McKenzie, head of World Bank operations in Afghanistan, stated that the transaction costs involved in disbursing funds through international channels consume some 30 percent of total aid to Afghanistan. Sending the funds through Afghan government ministries and agencies instead would result in a 20 percent savings, McKenzie estimated.
The London conference produced two major documents that will provide guidelines for both the government and international community to follow in putting those funds to work over the next five years.
The Afghanistan Compact assigns responsibilities to both President Hamid Karzai's administration and the international community to rebuild the country in the fields of security, governance, rule of law and human rights, and economic and social development. [See the The Afghanistan Compact here]. The Compact sets a framework for cooperation between Afghanistan and the international community with timelines and mechanisms for delivery and establishes a Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board to oversee implementation.
The Afghan government's interim National Development Strategy (I-ANDS), also unveiled during the London conference, defines development priorities and related policies, emphasizing that the country is "determined to meet benchmarks/timelines" related to its fulfillment of Compact commitments.
The fight against Afghanistan's narcotics trade was featured as a top priority. The country is the world's top producer of opium and refined heroin. Shortly before the conference, the United Kingdom pledged another 3,300 troops to be stationed in Afghanistan's Helmand province, where poppy-growing is widespread, and strategic opiate transit routes via Iran and Pakistan are within easy reach.
Considerable criticism has been directed at previous aid packages for making little or no impact on the lives of ordinary Afghans. But though the international community has called for benchmarks to be set for channeling international aid from the London conference through the government's central budget, a closer look at the Afghanistan Compact indicates that no clear commitments have yet been made in this area. Conclusions issued at the end of the conference refer only to the need "to channel more international assistance through the Afghan government budget, both for aid effectiveness and to enhance Afghan ownership."
Afghan and world leaders both tried to emphasize that Afghanistan's reconstruction has largely succeeded. "Afghanistan has been a success story by all accounts," declared Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Abdullah cited returning refugees, reopened schools, ongoing disarmament, and ongoing democratic reforms as signs of this success. "Both [the] international community and the Afghan state made it possible to change the course of events and history," he claimed, calling it "[a] change of [the] course of history on [a] global scale."
"You can have a very dark, or blurred, or bright perception of Afghanistan," he continued. "However, we need to stay together to consolidate past achievements."
Mevlut Katik is a London-based journalist and analyst. He is a former BBC correspondent and also worked for The Economist group.
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