AFGHANISTAN

Documents & Texts from America.gov

12 June 2008
Afghan Determination Earns $20 Billion in New Aid

Fact Sheet: The Afghanistan Support Conference: Renewed U.S. and International Commitment

By David McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington -- The Afghan people have shown their determination to rebuild their country, and the international community has responded by pledging more than $20 billion in new aid to help Afghanistan continue along the road to recovery.

“We all know that success will not be easy, but Afghanistan has reached a decisive moment for its future,” first lady Laura Bush told delegates from more than 80 countries and institutions at the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan in Paris.

Mrs. Bush announced a new U.S. pledge of $10.2 billion at the June 12 conference, where Afghan President Hamid Karzai introduced the Afghan National Development Strategy -- his government’s five-year plan to build on Afghan development gains since 2001, when U.S.-led coalition forces routed the Taliban regime and its al-Qaida allies.

America’s Paris pledge is twice the $5.9 billion it offered at Afghanistan’s 2006 London donors’ conference, as well as a significant addition to the $26 billion in security and development commitments Washington has made to Afghanistan’s democratic future.

The first lady’s speech followed her June 8 visit to Bamiyan province, where the ruins of two massive 2,000-year-old Buddha statues demolished by Taliban militants remain a reminder of how far Afghanistan has come as well as the many challenges still facing the South Asian nation. (See “First Lady Urges Redoubled Effort in Afghanistan.”)

“I have met children orphaned by Taliban massacres who now have classrooms to study in and safe homes to live in. And I watched women once forbidden to leave home [now] run businesses that provide for their families,” Mrs. Bush wrote in a June 12 commentary for the Wall Street Journal. “It is important -- and smart -- for the world to invest in Afghanistan.”

America’s contribution will support the Afghan development plan’s efforts to bring new economic opportunities to rural communities with roads, electricity and other key infrastructure. The funds will also go toward the Afghan government’s voter registration efforts and related administrative costs ahead of Afghan’s 2009 presidential vote and 2010 parliamentary elections.

Conference host France announced it would double its aid to Afghanistan, while Germany pledged $653 million. Japan also doubled its aid to $500 million and Australia pledged $234 million. Additional pledges included $1.9 billion from Canada, $1 billion from the United Kingdom and $770 million from the Netherlands, while Denmark, Italy, Norway and Poland offered additional aid.

The World Bank pledged $1.1 billion at the conference, while the Asian Development Bank pledged $1.3 billion and the Saudi Development Fund offered $118 million.

While the new funds are a substantial down payment toward the Afghan government’s $50 billion long-term development plan, how that money will be spent is an equally important question, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Success is going to depend on the collaborative efforts of the international community to back an Afghan-led development plan that connects the government to every level of the Afghan people,” Rice said. “This means successfully fighting corruption, improving accountability, and it means Afghan ownership of development.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined Rice in calling on the Afghan government to step up efforts against corruption and drug traffickers to ensure that international aid funds are truly benefiting the Afghan people. “Every act of corruption is a deliberate act by someone in a position of authority,” he said.

“It is only by combating corruption and strengthening the rule of law that our commitment will be efficient,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

A major contributor to corruption and insecurity is the continuing impact of Afghanistan’s drug traffickers, who have allied with militants in the country’s least secure regions to manufacture and distribute 90 percent of the heroin and related narcotics flooding the streets of Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Under the new Afghan plan, Karzai pledged that his government would take strides to root out corruption and expand economic development to all corners of the country. (See “Afghan Government Charts Challenges Ahead at Paris Conference.”)

“The Afghan people have shown their determination to see their country succeed,” said Mrs. Bush. “And now it's up to the international community to do our part to help make that success possible.”

Mrs. Bush’s remarks, her commentary and a related fact sheet, as well as Rice’s remarks, are available from America.gov.

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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