By Larry Thompson
01/29/2002
Washington Post

The international program to help Afghanistan rebuild itself will not succeed unless it relies on heavy participation by Afghan organizations. Larry Thompson, RI's Director of Advocacy, highlighted the need for Afghans to rely on non-government organizations in an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post.

Monday, January 28, 2002; Page A21

Lured by billions of dollars in pledges of international aid to Afghanistan, international aid agencies are flooding into Kabul and other Afghan cities.

In Kabul, the most recent list counts 65 international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 20 U.N. and other international organizations, and an unknown but sizable number of bilateral aid agencies from Europe, Japan, the United States and other countries. The number of foreign organizations still is growing. It is sometimes difficult to get seats on the U.N. 50-passenger aircraft that flies six times a week from Islamabad, Pakistan, to Kabul, despite a hefty price for the 40-minute flight of $600 one way or $1,200 round trip.

Prices in Kabul and wages to Afghans catering to foreigners have gone through the roof. Eighteen-year-old Afghan English students earn $30 or more a day as interpreters and guides -- far more than their fathers receive in salary as doctors or engineers working for the government or Afghan organizations. Rents in the upscale (for Afghanistan) suburb of Wazir Akbar Khan and downtown Shar-i-nau rise daily. Two weeks ago, an NGO rented a house for $600 a month. Now the landlord demands $2,000 a month. The cold, dark and dismal Intercontinental Hotel charges foreign journalists $130 per night -- and is full, although many of its rooms are occupied by Afghan "commanders" who apparently pay nothing.

All this attention to Afghanistan is welcome in many respects. The accomplishments of the humanitarian aid program during the past several months have been extraordinary, averting a nationwide famine. But pockets of severe hunger still exist, and most Afghans suffer from grinding poverty. A continuation and amplification of humanitarian aid programs is essential to save lives.

Now is also the time to look at what the international community is trying to achieve in the longer term. Governments and the United Nations probably will agree that the objectives of the international aid effort in Afghanistan are to foster a decent government, a viable economy that encourages the repatriation of refugees, a more humane society and a post-Taliban Afghanistan that doesn't again become an international outlaw.

What the "gold rush" to Afghanistan may be neglecting is the fact that only the creation of effective and enlightened Afghan institutions will achieve those objectives. The foreigners already loom powerful over a cash-poor provisional Afghan government that doesn't even have the money to pay the salaries of its employees.

The United Nations has pledged to leave a "light footprint" on Afghan soil. But keeping what will soon be hundreds of foreign organizations working toward common objectives will be like trying to queue up a herd of thirsty mules at a water hole.

One of Afghanistan's few assets is the thousands of experienced Afghan aid workers who have toiled for years to bring food, health care and shelter to their compatriots. After Sept. 11, all the international staff of all aid agencies were evacuated from Afghanistan. For the next 2 1/2 months one of the largest humanitarian aid operations in history was carried out by Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers and Afghan aid workers, delivering food to millions of people despite Taliban harassment, civil war and U.S. bombing.

Afghan leaders of NGOs fear they will be overwhelmed by the international presence in Afghanistan and that their best staff will be lured away by the high salaries paid by foreigners. They are regarded by the United Nations, aid agencies and international NGOs as contractors rather than full partners. When a foreign NGO arrives in town, they say, the U.N. agencies almost always give it a position of leadership over the Afghan NGOs.

But one Afghan aid worker said, "There are 10 Afghan NGOs capable of implementing million-dollar aid programs as well as any foreign NGO." This is a claim that should be tested. The Afghan aid workers complain also of Afghans from the diaspora assuming the right to speak for them. "They've lived in Europe or the U.S. for 20 years. They don't know the country, but they're being listened to more than we are," said one. Afghan women have the additional fear of being ignored both by foreigners and Afghan men.

The Afghan challenge is immense. The best of efforts could fail. Security is uncertain; politics is a contact sport; warlords have armies, the government does not. The key to making Afghanistan a respected and respectable country is steady improvement in the capacity of Afghan institutions -- private and public -- to meet the pressing needs of Afghanistan's people. The country needs outside help, but it must be rebuilt from within.

The writer, who is with Refugees International, was in Afghanistan recently.