18 December 2001
UN Sets Up Special Fund to Help Finance Afghan Authority Costs
(Fund seeking $20 million to get government running) (950)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- As the new Afghan Interim Authority gets ready to
take control of the country December 22, desks, chairs, fax machines,
telephones, stationary, and money to pay salaries is being rushed to
Kabul from a new $20 million fund being established by the United
Nations.
In an effort to support the re-emergence of government institutions in
Afghanistan, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has set up
and will manage a special fund to pay for start-up operations for the
Afghan Interim Authority. UN Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi
asked the UNDP to establish the fund to help cover administrative
costs for the operations outlined by the Bonn Agreement.
In the Bonn Agreement, the Interim Authority was given a number of
responsibilities including establishing the justice commission, the
central bank, the commission on human rights, and the civil service
commission, in addition to managing the affairs of Afghanistan through
the first six months.
Julia Taft, UNDP assistant administrator and director of the bureau
for crisis prevention and recovery, said, "this is a fund basically to
provide support to the authorities for initial activities and some
salaries for police and teachers and health workers.... But this is
just a bridging approach. This is not the longer term requirements
that they will need."
"It is an effort to say on behalf of the international community: we
want to help as much as we can to get this process launched," Taft
said at a press conference December 18.
The fund will officially be launched at a meeting hosted by the
European Union in Brussels on December 21 with an appeal to donor
nations to start making contributions. In the meantime, the more than
$200,000 to cover the first days of the authority is being financed by
UNDP. Establishment of the fund was agreed upon by the Afghanistan
Support Group, which met in Berlin earlier this month. The group,
established in 1996, includes the main donor countries and
international agencies active in the country. It includes Australia,
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the
Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and
the United States.
Taft said that UNDP has received many expressions of interest in
contributing to the fund. "I think at the Brussels meeting many donors
will announce their level of initial support," she added.
One of the great problems facing the Interim Authority is how to
finance government operations, Taft explained.
"Unfortunately the Taliban have taken away all the money," she said.
"There is virtually no money to manage the government structure of
Afghanistan.... There are no operating funds to manage the government
structure, in fact, many of the civil servants have not been paid for
a while."
The fund plans to help with the core administrative costs for the
offices of each of the 29 administrators and the new head of
government, police salaries, and teachers' salaries when the school
year begins on March 21, 2002, Taft said.
"One of the things we have learned in this issue of how the UN can
help a state in transition or coming out of conflict is that there is
always a lot of support for training programs and technical assistance
but very seldom is there money for core expenses of key salaries," she
said. "We wanted to include that this time around so the interim
authority will have the basic wherewithal to do the task it needs to
do."
The UNDP official stressed that the fund will only last six months and
will be managed by UNDP with the guidance of Brahimi who will be
consulting with the interim government.
"This is an interim authority measure. Obviously later on the
government will assume responsibility when it gets donor funding,"
Taft said.
"The whole philosophy is the Afghans themselves must be in charge of
their future and so to the extent we can help under-gird their ability
to do that we want to do that with their guidance and their
involvement. Those kinds of decisions -- including the nature of the
police -- these are going to be Afghan decisions, not UN decisions,"
she said.
UNDP has budged enough funds initially so that each of the ministers
can hire up to ten people. The office supplies and UNDP advisors are
set to arrive in Afghanistan December 20, she said.
UNDP plans to make a lump sum small payment to the ministers, their
staff, and career civil servants for the first month of the interim
authority and then will work with the government to determine the
salary ranges for the civil servants for the remaining five months.
"We also think this will help the local economy right away," Taft
said. "We are recommending no more than $159 a month for the most
senior people."
What the future salaries will be will have to be determined by the new
government, she said, but in the meantime the international community
wants "to help the Afghan authorities ensure that their employee can
lead a reasonable life."
The UN Afghan Interim Authority Fund (AIAF) will also provide
technical assistance on some immediate reconstruction needs and has
budgeted money for some repairs, however, it will not provide physical
space for offices, Taft said.
"The United Nations is not running the ministries and the government
of Afghanistan. We are there to help them and so to the extent that
they need information about structural integrity or site
safety...technical assistance will be provided. We have resources that
we have budgeted to do repairs, but this is not a reconstruction
fund," she said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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