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Afghanistan in the News
Kandahar Governor puts Education on the Agenda
Canada aims to hand reins of key initiative to Afghans
The Globe and Mail - International Josh Wingrove Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010
Kandahar, Afghanistan - With 108 schools in his province crumbling and out of use, Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa has a long wish list.
He needs money, to refurbish or simply rebuild the schools. Once they're built, he needs thousands of teachers to staff them, for which he'll also need to expand the local teacher training college. And of course, given the volatility of the southern province, he'll need security to protect all the fledgling programs.
It's a lot to discuss in one evening.
Mr. Wesa hosted a shura, or consultation, of local tribal leaders and political figures at his palace in Kandahar City on Sunday evening. Leaders gathered around a large table to hear Mr. Wesa and his acting education director make a pitch for co-operation in education.
I want to change the scene here a little bit. My plan is to involve the community as much as I can, Mr. Wesa said in an interview. We want to train more teachers in Kandahar ... we need more schools to open.
Supporting the development of education programs is one of Canada's three so-called signature projects in the country. With only 152 of Kandahar's 260 schools in operation, Canada has already pledged $12-million to build or renovate 50 schools in Kandahar province by the end of next year. So far, 14 are finished with another 28 under construction.
We're well on track, said diplomat Ben Rowswell, the representative of Canada in Kandahar.
Canada has also pledged to train 3,000 teachers, provide funding for teacher scholarships, and help rebuild the Kandahar teachers' college. The total cost of Canada's education commitment in Afghanistan is pegged at $90-million, the government says.
It is estimated that over eight million children are now in school in Afghanistan, about ten times the total of a decade ago.
But Mr. Rowswell, who attended the shura, said it's crucial that Canada hands the reins of its education initiative to Afghans as the country prepares for a possible withdrawal in 2011.
It's important because it's our signature project, but we played a very minor role [at the shura]. It was the governor's shura. And that's the point it's about Afghan ownership.
Mr. Wesa said an expanded education program, which he described as critical for the long-term development of the country, can only survive with support at the tribal level across the region.
It [the shura ] allowed all the key players to get together and exchange ideas and co-ordinate the way forward so as to improve the level of knowledge of students and teachers acting education director Haji Najibullah Ahmedi added in a statement.
This is the sixth shura held by Mr. Wesa, an Afghan-Canadian, since he was appointed governor a year ago. Past gatherings have focused on security and the justice system, among other topics.
After a slow start, Canada's school-building program continues to take hold. In the past four winter months, Canada has finished two schools and started construction on nine more. Work is now done or in progress on 42 schools.
Canada has also trained 144 master teachers, putting it well behind pace on its goal of training 3,000 teachers by next year.
By 2011, Canada also hopes to have 20,000 people who have received literacy training. Progress on that initiative is stronger, with more than 13,000 people who have received the training, according to a fall report to Parliament. Canada also pledged $1.5-million to strengthen anti-corruption measures in the department of education.
With Canada set for an Afghanistan pullout in 2011, Mr. Rowswell said shuras such as the one held Sunday will help the community take control of this so-called signature development project.
Frankly, it's a more complicated problem than just infrastructure. What we need to do is have Afghans identify solutions to their problems exactly like we did today, helping the governor, he said in an interview. Our role was just in providing some of the support and helping Afghans have that conversation.
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Afghanistan strategy should also focus on improving quality of life
Irish Sun - Editorial 28 Dec 2009
The Obama administration, which has pledged a new and improved approach to development aid, could learn a lot from the experiences of successful social entrepreneurs.
The Obama administration has outlined a three-pronged strategy in Afghanistan, focusing on security, governance and economic development. But the implementation of those elements has been woefully lopsided. Since 2002, 93% of the $170 billion the United States has committed to Afghanistan has gone to military operations.
As the country prepares to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, we also need to focus on providing a surge in the quality of life for the Afghan people.
U.S. Agency for International Development workers are tremendously dedicated, but there are not nearly enough of them, which means the agency is heavily dependent on private contractors. There have been some commendable achievements, such as helping reduce Afghanistan' s infant mortality rate and rehabilitating nearly 1,000 miles of roads. Still, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lamented in March, the lack of results for the Afghan people is "heartbreaking."
The Obama administration has pledged a new, improved approach to development aid. Yet USAID has been without an administrator for 10 months, and the president's nominee, Rajiv Shah, has yet to be confirmed. It's now time, with the president's commitment in his West Point speech to "focus our assistance in areas, such as agriculture, that can make an immediate impact in the lives of the Afghan people," to heed the experience of successful social entrepreneurs who, with far fewer resources at their disposal, have achieved impressive progress on the ground.
Take Greg Mortenson, president of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, or CAI, who over the last 16 years has built or supported 130 schools in remote Pakistani and Afghan villages. These secular schools provide education to more than 30,000 children, the vast majority of them girls. CAI's revenue in fiscal year 2007 were a fraction of what we will spend every day in Afghanistan over the next 18 months.
Or take Sakena Yacoobi, a U.S.-educated public health professional, who returned to her homeland in the 1990s to found the Afghan Institute of Learning, or AIL, now a network of 45 centers in seven provinces that provide comprehensive health and education services. Seventy percent of AIL's staff of more than 400 is female. With an annual budget of $1 million, AIL reaches more than 350,000 Afghan women and children.
Or Connie Duckworth, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, who was so moved by the hardships of the women she met on a visit to Afghanistan in 2002 that she created Arzu -- which means "hope" in Dari -- a rug-making enterprise focused on female weavers that is one of Afghanistan' s largest private-sector employers, with 90% of its jobs in underserved, rural areas.
What are some key lessons from these social entrepreneurs' success? First, ask, don't tell: U.S. assistance programs must be tailored to meet local needs, not our own. Over the last eight years, too many well-intentioned U.S. programs have been driven by what America thinks is best, which is how we wasted millions trying to launch a 25,000-acre plantation on soil that was too salty for crops, and initiating cash-for-work construction of cobblestone roads that Afghans rejected because they hurt their camels' hooves. The Afghan people know what they need. Second, invest capital outside the capital -- and devise and direct those projects from the field. Mortenson is successful in part because he spends months every year living with the villagers in the communities his organization serves. That model has not yet penetrated the thinking of U.S. government programs. As Amy Frumin, who served as a USAID worker in Panjshir province, wrote in a June 2009 report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "
The vast majority of USAID funds are invested in programs that are designed from Kabul" -- even though more than three-quarters of Afghans live outside the capital. Third, ensure that U.S. assistance reaches the Afghan people. This sounds obvious. Yet last year, the nongovernmental Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief reported that 40% of official aid to Afghanistan goes back to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries. Fourth, make women the focus, not the footnote, of aid programs. It's no accident Mortenson, Yacoobi and Duckworth all target their limited resources toward women and girls: In Afghanistan, as elsewhere, investing in women pays dividends many times over. Women are more likely to prioritize the education, nutrition and health of their families, creating a multiplier effect that lifts entire communities. Finally, approach development as an evolution, not a revolution. As Afghan expert Rory Stewart recently argued in a PBS interview, "Afghanistan is very poor, very fragile, very traumatized. To rebuild a country like that would take 30 or 40 years of patient, tolerant investment."
We should invest in programs that will be sustainable, long-term -- and be prepared to commit for the long haul.
Mortenson called his book "Three Cups of Tea" in reference to a rural village leader's advice that slowing down and building relationships over tea in the traditional way is as important as building projects. As 30,000 more U.S. troops prepare to depart for Afghanistan, let's hope we also have the stomach for 30,000 cups of tea.
Stanley A. Weiss is founding chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington.
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Aid in Afghanistan 'confused and poorly co-ordinated'
Epolitix via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News - Dec 14 4:58 AM
Baroness Rawlings, opposition spokesperson for international development and foreign and commonwealth affairs writes for ePolitix.com ahead of her question in the House of Lords on aid to Afghanistan. Skip related content.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan the confluence of our moral commitment to development and our national interest is particularly clear. Building the capacity of the state in both countries to guarantee security and stability, deliver development and reduce poverty is absolutely central to defeating violent extremism.
Improving the quality and impact of our aid there, as part of a joined-up British regional strategy, will be a top priority for an incoming Conservative government. Progress has been made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban: more children are in school, and girls are being educated.
Health services have improved. Previously one in ten people had access to basic healthcare, and now that has increased to eight in ten. But more needs to be done. Afghanistan is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Life expectancy is only 43 years.
The average annual income is, in real terms, under a dollar per day. Poverty and unemployment are direct contributors to the ongoing Taliban insurgency and to opium cultivation. Similarly, Pakistan faces acute problems of poverty, and the deteriorating security situation threatens to stifle future development and creates a fertile ground for radicalisation.
DfID spent £109m in Afghanistan in 2007/08, less than it spent in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Tanzania. It spent £87m in Pakistan, less than it spent in Ghana.
The government has recently announced plans to increase support for both countries. But there are still questions as to whether it has really grasped the urgent need to intensify and reinvigorate our development efforts there.
As part of our review of British bilateral aid spending, a Conservative government would look particularly closely at our work in Afghanistan and Pakistan to see whether it would be possible to raise support further and faster. There are limits to the capacity of these countries to absorb more aid without sacrificing quality, and we will measure success by outputs and outcomes, not inputs. But our mission in these countries cannot be allowed to fail for lack of effort.
It is striking that a recent review of US policy in the region calls for "a complete overhaul" of the American civilian assistance strategy in Afghanistan. The international aid effort in Afghanistan is too often confused and poorly co-ordinated. Although there has been progress in some areas (notably the army and the ministry of rural affairs), corruption and weak capacity remain enormous problems.
A Conservative government would continue to work closely with the Afghan government to build its ability to deliver the basic prerequisites of peace and development: Secure borders, law and order, and basic services.
This is a project of state building that will take generations to complete, and no one should be under any illusion about the scale of the challenge.
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Afghans say poverty, not Taliban, main cause of war
Reuters, 11/18/2009-Most Afghans see not Taliban militants but poverty, unemployment and government corruption as the main causes of war in their country, according to a report by a leading aid group released on Wednesday.
After three decades of war, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. It is also one of the most corrupt. Unemployment stands at 40 percent and more than half the country live below the poverty line.
On top of that, violence is at its highest levels since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
The report, based on a survey of more than 700 ordinary Afghans by British charity Oxfam and several local aid groups, found that 70 percent of people questioned viewed poverty and unemployment as the main drivers of the conflict.
Nearly half of those surveyed said corruption and the ineffectiveness of their government were the main reasons for the continued fighting, while 36 percent said the Taliban insurgency was to blame.
The 704 respondents from around the country were allowed to give multiple answers on reasons for the conflict.
"The people of Afghanistan have suffered 30 years of unrelenting horror. Afghan society has been devastated," said Grace Ommer, Oxfam Country Director for Afghanistan.
"Repairing this damage can't be done overnight. It will take a long time for the economic, social and psychological scars to heal ... Afghanistan needs more than military solutions," she said in statement.
AFGHANS FRUSTRATED
There are some 110,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, 68,000 of them American, trying to quell a strengthening Taliban insurgency that has spread to previously peaceful areas.
U.S. President Barack Obama is in the final stages of deciding whether to send up to 40,000 more U.S. troops.
But ordinary Afghans are frustrated at the slow pace of development, endemic corruption and the inability of Afghan and international security forces to stop the violence.
Despite the billions of dollars in aid poured into the country, most Afghans have seen few changes to their lives. Afghanistan relies on aid for around 90 percent of its spending.
"Many individuals felt that though much had been promised to the Afghan people, little had actually been delivered -- creating frustration and disillusionment and ultimately undermining stability," Oxfam said in its report.
"Individuals called for better measures to ensure that economic development and aid reach those who need it the most," it said.
After the Taliban, the reason most people gave for the continued fighting in their country was foreign interference, 25 percent of respondents saying other countries were to blame.
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Opium trade complicates Afghanistan conundrum
Washington Post By EUGENE ROBINSON 1 Nov 2009
The opium poppy was introduced to Afghanistan more than 2,300 years ago by the armies of Alexander the Great. His forces were eventually driven out, like those of every would-be conqueror since. The poppy has proved more tenacious.
On Monday, three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents ? Forrest Leamon, Chad Michael and Michael Weston ? were killed in a helicopter crash in western Afghanistan. The aircraft reportedly was shot down following a raid on the compound of a prominent Afghan drug lord.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the CIA has been making regular payments to Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai and a suspect in the Afghan opium trade. The newspaper quoted sources alleging that Ahmed Wali Karzai ? who denies any involvement in the drug business ? collects huge fees from traffickers for allowing trucks loaded with drugs to cross bridges he controls in southern Afghanistan.
So is it our policy to attack the Afghan drug trade while we also line the pockets of one of its reputed kingpins? Who is going to explain this to the families of agents Leamon, Michael and Weston?
Afghanistan' s status as a narco-superpower is another reason why President Obama would be wrong to deepen U.S. involvement there. Opium is the one booming sector of the Afghan economy: Poppy fields in the south and west of the country produce the raw material for an estimated 90 percent of the world's heroin. Money from the opium trade supports the resurgent Taliban, which is fighting to expel U.S. and NATO forces. Therefore, a blow against the drug business is a blow against the enemy.
Except when it isn't. Except when the ?good guys? who are supposed to be our allies ? and many of the Afghan citizens a counterinsurgency strategy would try to protect ? are dependent on the drug trade as well. Except when the corruption that is an intrinsic element of the drug business blurs the line between friend and foe and obscures the difference between right and wrong.
As The Washington Post's South America correspondent during the administration of George Bush the Elder, I watched firsthand our government's costly and futile crusade against cocaine. We tried attacking the problem in the coca fields ? I visited a U.S.-financed military base in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley, where at the time 60 percent of the world's coca was grown. We tried going after the processors ? in Colombia, police took me to a jungle camp where chemists had been hard at work just hours earlier. We tried breaking up the trafficking cartels ? I was served lunch at a Medellin prison by three cocaine bosses whose comfortable incarceration was almost like a hotel stay.
Nothing worked. All the U.S. managed to do was shift the coca fields from one valley to the next and break the big cartels into smaller ones. As long as some people want drugs, other people will find ways to supply them.
DEA officials have said they are sharply increasing the agency's presence in Afghanistan. Wisely, the Obama administration is abandoning the strategy of trying to eradicate the poppy fields; eradication, which robs rural communities of their only livelihood, may be the quickest and surest way to turn apolitical farmers into anti-American insurgents. The focus now is on the middlemen who buy, transport and process the drugs ? which creates a different kind of problem.
Those middlemen logically seek, and obtain, official protection. In Latin America, they approach police and government officials with an offer to accept bribes or be shot. In a country as poor as Afghanistan, with such weak central authority, the U.S.-backed government is vulnerable to bribery at almost every level.
The inevitable future is one in which we attack and support the Afghan drug trade at the same time. Is this a policy for which we can ask DEA agents to give their lives?
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Japan to fund Afghan infrastructure
AFP 31 Oct 2009
TOKYO - Japan will fund a programme costing up to five billion dollars to help build roads and boost agriculture in conflict-torn Afghanistan, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has outlined the proposal, which would include water control and irrigation technology, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The five-year programme, starting next year, would also help provide job training for former Taliban with stipends of 100-200 dollars a month, while giving time with Japanese companies in Japan, the newspaper said.
Hatoyama plans to announce the initiative, which would be on top of existing financial support for Afghanistan, when US President Barack Obama visits Japan in mid-November, it said.
Hatoyama's centre-left government, which won a general election on August 30, has already told the United States it will end a naval refuelling mission that supports the war in Afghanistan.
Hatoyama has repeatedly said he planned for new, non-military support for Afghanistan such as job training for former Taliban as a possible alternative to the refuelling mission.
The Indian Ocean mission -- which began in December 2001 and was periodically renewed by Japan's previous, conservative government -- provides the US-led coalition with fuel and other logistical support.
Obama has invested much political capital in the promise to root out Islamic extremists from Afghanistan and is weighing a request from his own military to send more US troops there.
While in opposition, Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan briefly forced a halt to the mission through parliamentary manoeuvres, arguing that Japan -- officially pacifist since World War II -- should not abet "American wars."
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