AFGHANISTAN

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09 June 2008
Afghan Government Charts Challenges Ahead at Paris Conference

By David McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington -- Expanding security, confronting the influence of narcotics and corruption and coordinating international aid more effectively are expected to top the agenda as representatives from 80 nations and international organizations meet in Paris for the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan.

“If you look at the Afghanistan of 2001 and the Afghanistan of now, there is a remarkable difference for the better,” says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “It is our intention as partners to continue and intensify that progress.”

The June 12 conference in Paris builds on renewed international support for Afghanistan seen this year at the NATO 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, as well as with the appointment of Norway’s Kai Eide as the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Afghan reconstruction.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will present his government’s national development strategy for the coming five years. Organizers will seek to surpass the $10.5 billion in international aid pledged at the 2006 London conference to continue Afghanistan’s recovery.

SECURITY CHALLENGES REMAIN

Despite marked progress in recent years, 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces still identify security as their top priority, say Afghan officials, particularly in former Taliban strongholds bordering Pakistan in the country’s south and east. As a result, approximately 39 districts within these provinces -- out of 398 nationwide -- remain mostly off-limits to government officials and international aid workers, according to the Afghan government, slowing development in some of the country’s poorest communities.

As Afghan and NATO forces continue pushing back Taliban forces, insurgents increasingly have responded by targeting schools and other civilian targets. The Afghan government reports that 220 students and teachers were murdered by insurgents in 2007, while nearly 200,000 other children were prevented from attending village schools due to attacks or threats of violence.

The Afghan government seeks to confront the security challenge by seeking additional aid in Paris to continue building strong, effective military and police forces, as well as governing institutions at the national, provincial and district level capable of delivering security and the rule of law.

“The international community needs to continue and expand its efforts,” Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told a Senate panel in January. “Lasting stability will only come when the Afghan government can step in to fill the void that is left when an area is cleared from insurgents.”

NARCOTICS, CORRUPTION LINKED TO VIOLENCE

Breaking the nexus between Afghanistan’s opium traffickers, the militants they finance, and the government corruption they encourage is another major challenge facing officials at the conference.

Five southern Afghan provinces account for 83 percent of the country’s opium poppy cultivation, which in turn accounts for more than 90 percent of the illegal heroin and other narcotics flooding into Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

“The disincentives for poppy cultivation must be bigger than the potential profit,” says Boucher. “The credibility of our counternarcotics efforts must include making the risks of growing poppy unacceptable.”

The number of poppy-free provinces is forecasted to increase slightly in 2008, Afghan officials said, a trend they would like to encourage with aid targeted at counternarcotics efforts and investments in agriculture and energy to give communities an economically viable and legal alternative. In addition, officials will seek help to discourage corruption by developing greater transparency in government and business regulations.

“Local governance structures and counternarcotics are closely interconnected,” Boucher said. “Where government has control and has placed good administrators, poppy production is down. Where the insurgency rages, poppy production is up.”

BETTER AID COORDINATION ESSENTIAL

Another challenge for the international donor community is effectively coordinating aid to prevent overlapping projects among the wide array of foreign governments, private organizations, military civil-affairs programs and others helping the Afghan people.

The Afghan National Development Strategy will seek to centralize international aid by better defining the country’s recovery needs and committing to give donors clear information on how their aid money will be spent. In addition, the plan will encourage donors to help strengthen local economies by procuring goods and services within the country.

“There is a lot of work to do to improve the coordination among the international donors to Afghanistan, the many countries that are on the ground. But I do think there is a good spirit and a good will,” says Rice. “We have a lot of work to do, but we’re going to do it together. And the Afghan people deserve to have that kind of support.”

For more on the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan, see the French foreign ministry’s Web site. The site hosts the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, a 288-page PDF file.

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