25 September 2003
Foreign Ministers Discuss Increasing Aid to Afghanistan
U.S. pledges additional $1.2 billion for 2003
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- Foreign ministers from some of the world's richest countries met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai September 24 to discuss intensifying aid to Afghanistan over the next year.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the United States has pledged an additional $1.2 billion for Afghanistan this year and urged the group to collectively match the new U.S. commitment.
"President Bush's commitment of the additional funds is meant to send a clear signal of the United States' continuing, long-term commitment to Afghanistan," Powell said.
The new pledge is beyond the $1.8 billion that previously had been appropriated, the secretary of state added.
"It is for all of us to help President Karzai ensure that the hard-won hope of the Afghan people is justified," Powell said. "It is crucial that we now accelerate the international reconstruction effort in all spheres: political, economic, and security."
Afghanistan will adopt a new constitution in a few months and hold its first national elections next year in "a dramatic test of Afghanistan's progress toward [being a] fully functioning democracy," Powell said. "It is vitally important that Afghanistan meet this test and that we in the international community help Afghanistan meet it."
Security is a crucial factor in both ensuring the success of the elections and in keeping reconstruction efforts moving, Powell said.
"The time has come for all of us to redouble our efforts. We must ensure that the money we have already pledged is disbursed without delay," he said. "Now is the time to identify and commit new resources. The stakes for all of us are as high as the new-found hope of the Afghan people."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the nations to extend aid to Afghanistan beyond the timetable set out in the 2001 Bonn agreement.
Many of the pledges made at the Tokyo conference in 2002 extended only through the end of the Bonn process, Annan said, but "it has become clear since then that the need is even greater than we thought, and likely to last longer." He recommended meeting early in 2004 to review reconstruction needs and correct the course ahead.
Annan said that the meeting, held while world leaders are at U.N. headquarters for the beginning of the 58th General Assembly session, as well as the donor meeting held in Dubai September 21, "is a concrete affirmation of the international community's continuing commitment to a stable, secure Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbors."
Pressing for contributions for both security reform and reconstruction, the secretary general said that "setback on some will mean setbacks on all."
The secretary general also urged Afghanistan's neighbors to increase cooperation with Kabul in both trade and investment.
Also attending the meeting were ministers from Canada, China, France, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Japan, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and the United Kingdom.
Ambassador William Taylor, the U.S. Afghan coordinator, said that the priorities for U.S. aid -- set in consultation with the Karzai Government -- are for projects that have an immediate, tangible impact on security, the constitutional process and elections, and reconstruction.
In an interview September 24, Taylor said that half of the U.S. money will go to security projects, such as accelerating training of the Afghan National Army, bolstering the national police force and border patrol, and disarmament.
On the political side, convening the constitutional Loya Jirga in December will be expensive. The holding of elections in June requires voter registration as well as logistics for the election. They will be difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive. All of which is costly, the ambassador said.
Funds will also be used for reconstruction of the infrastructure -- schools, health clinics, and roads, he said. There is also a private sector initiative to help revive destroyed market centers and a venture capital fund to help small entrepreneurs.
One of Afghanistan's advantages, Taylor said, "is that the international community is working well together there, especially with the United Nations."
The U.S. funds are going to bilateral projects with Kabul, projects with other governments, and through the United Nations, the ambassador noted.
"The United Nations has a good mandate," he said. "We have a Security Council resolution that the U.N. is working under, a security force that was authorized by the council in Kabul. So the U.N. is playing a positive, constructive leadership role in Afghanistan."
The other U.N. agencies -- such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Office for Project Services, the U.N. Development Program, and UNICEF -- have good projects there, the ambassador pointed out.
There is also a strong presence of private aid agencies, known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Taylor noted. "Some of them have been there for 20 years through the worst of times ... they have provided health services, education services, drinking water. They are able to work in a lot of the country, but the security situation along the Pakistan border is such that they can't work very well in the southern, southeastern, and eastern border areas."
In those areas, however, the U.S. is sending small civil affairs teams of engineers, doctors and aid staff along with some military protection to help local villages with projects, the ambassador said.
Taylor, who returned to Washington in July from nine months in Afghanistan, said he had seen significant change in the country while he was there.
"When I got there about 90 percent of the women in Kabul wore the full length burka," he said. "When I left ... I estimate that was down to 60 percent -- a significant change over that nine-month period. That reflects a growing confidence on the part of the population, particularly women, that things are really changing."
"For a long time, they knew there had been a change because the Taliban was gone ... but they weren't sure how permanent it was. As the time goes on, they are more and more confident that the change is real and it is permanent," Taylor said.
He also pointed to the small Afghan businesses that are sprouting up.
"The cities -- not just Kabul, but the big cities -- are really bustling. You see new little restaurants, new little kiosks," the ambassador said. "The International Monetary Fund estimated that economic growth in the country last year was 30 percent and they project 20 percent this year," Taylor said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
