French foreign minister wants new approach to Afghan aid
PARIS (AFP) — French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Saturday said international aid efforts were failing in Afghanistan and called for a new approach to help the country rebuild.
Kouchner told a conference of some 40 humanitarian organisations that Afghans themselves must play a larger role in the development of the country which has been struggling to make a fresh start since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
"International aid has not fully yielded fruit since 2001," Kouchner said. "We must review our tools and our approach."
The one-day conference in Paris was to set the stage for an international donors' meeting that France is hosting on June 12 to raise funds for Afghan reconstruction.
"The main objective is what I call the Afghanization of international aid to involve all Afghans and ensure it benefits every one of them," said Kouchner.
Seven years after the Taliban were driven out of Kabul by US forces and their allies, much of Afghanistan's population remains poor and aid groups complain of too much focus being placed on the military effort.
NATO has deployed a 47,000-strong force drawn from 40 countries which is fighting remnants of the Taliban and supporting the weak central government of President Hamid Karzai.
"We know well that a sustainable solution cannot be solely military," Kouchner said.
But he warned against pitting the international peacekeeping effort in Afghanistan against reconstruction plans.
"Let's not play up security against development, development against security. Afghans need both," he said.
Delegates at the conference including ACBAR, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief made up of some 94 relief organisations, will set priorities for development projects and make proposals to be presented to donors next month.
An ACBAR report released in March charged that Western countries had delivered only 15 billion dollars (10 billion euros) out of the 25 billion dollars they had promised, undermining prospects for peace and development in the country.
About 40 percent of aid returns to donor nations as corporate profits and high consultant costs, according to the report.
"For every 100 dollars spent on the military operation in Afghanistan, seven dollars goes to civilian reconstruction," said Pierre Lafrance, of the Madera non-governmental organisation, which works mainly in agricultural development.
Afghan Education Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar earlier this year accused donor nations of failing to provide enough aid to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban, saying "the West wants a victory at a discount price."
The conclusions of the conference will be presented to the June 12 donors' meeting, hosted by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul haq Ahadi said Monday the government is hoping to secure 50 billion dollars in aid at the June conference to finance a five-year development plan.
One of the biggest projects is for the production of electricity, which reaches only about 10 percent of Afghans.
There were also plans to build thousands of kilometres (miles) of roads as well as more dams and irrigation systems, the minister said.
