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Too much aid to Afghanistan wasted: Oxfam |
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Written by NotOverYet
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Saturday, 24 November 2007 |
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Reuters
11/19/2007
By Jon Hemming
KABUL
Too much aid to Afghanistan is wasted -- soaked up in contractors'
profits, spent on expensive expatriate consultants or squandered on
small-scale, quick-fix projects, a leading British charity said on
Tuesday.
Despite more than $15 billion of aid pumped into Afghanistan since
U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, many Afghans
still suffer levels of poverty rarely seen outside sub-Saharan
Africa.
"The development process has to date been too centralized, top-heavy
and insufficient," said a report by Oxfam.
By far the biggest donor, the United States approved a further $6.4
billion in Afghan aid this year, but the funds are spent in ways that
are "ineffective or inefficient," Oxfam said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allocates close
to half its funds to the five largest U.S. contractors in
Afghanistan.
"Too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and sub-
contractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries
and living costs," the report said.
A full-time expatriate consultant can cost up to $500,000 a year,
Oxfam said.
More money needed to be channeled through the Afghan government,
strengthening its influence and institutions.
Aid also needed to be better coordinated to avoid duplication, it
said.
Only 10 percent of technical assistance to Afghanistan is coordinated
either with the government or among donors.
SECURITY DETERIORATES
Spending on development is dwarfed by that spent on fighting the
Taliban. The U.S. military is spending $65,000 a minute in
Afghanistan, Oxfam said.
The report called for the 25 provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs)
run by the armies of 13 different nations across the country to
withdraw where the security situation is stable enough and carry out
relief work only where there is a critical need.
The PRTs, Oxfam said, "being nation-led are often driven more by
available funding or the political interests of the nation involved
rather than development considerations." The result was "a large
number of small-scale, short-term projects."
"Given the historic suspicion of foreign intervention, such efforts
to win 'hearts and minds' are naive. It is unsurprising that the huge
expansion of PRT activities has not prevented the deterioration of
security."
Violent incidents are up at least 20 percent since last year,
according to U.N. estimates, and have spread northwards to many areas
previously considered safe.
More than 200 civilians have been killed in at least 130 Taliban
suicide bombs and at least 1,200 civilians have been killed overall
this year -- about half of them in operations by Afghan and
international troops.
Oxfam called on the 50,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan to take
greater care not to hurt civilians, particularly in air strikes. The
lower number of troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq -- less than a
third as many in a much bigger country with a larger population --
leads to a greater reliance on air power.
There are four times as many air strikes in Afghanistan as in Iraq,
Oxfam said.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it takes every effort to avoid
civilian casualties and has already modified procedures for launching
air strikes resulting in fewer civilian deaths. |
