‘There’s more to Afghanistan than fighting’
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On a visit to IDS on 19 February, Afghanistan’s Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Ehsan Zia, highlighted ‘major achievements’ in his country since 2002 and recognised challenges ahead.
He explained how 19,000 community councils have devolved power to Afghan villagers for the first time in their history, and how women in particular are benefiting from microfinance programmes.
The Minister also discussed the problems facing Afghanistan, including the Taliban, opium production, and the ‘acute shortage’ of qualified judges, teachers and doctors. Afghan history Zia provided the context for the development tasks after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 by describing Afghanistan’s turbulent history. He called Afghanistan a ‘victim of geography’ and said it had been left behind for more than 100 years – first caught between British India and Russia in the 19th century and early 20th century, and later between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The former refugee who lived in Pakistan for 16 years said the 23 years of war which began with the Soviet invasion in 1979 led to Afghanistan becoming a ‘collapsed state’ without any semblance of state institutions. For example, in 2002 there was no single Afghan army unit or police station, no schools for girls and not even five kilometres of paved roads. Development initiatives However, progress has been made since 2002 and there are now more than 35,000 soldiers in the army, six million children in school (more than 30 per cent of them girls) and 4,500 kilometres of paved roads. Zia continued by emphasising the work of his ministry’s National Solidarity Programme (NSP) – an initiative created to develop the ability of Afghan communities to identify, plan, manage and monitor their own development projects. Under the scheme, villagers elect (women have to participate in this process) decision-making Community Development Councils (CDCs) which then spend money on development projects, such as building schools, improving sanitation and roads. CDCs now cover 30,000 villages all over Afghanistan, and more than $400 million has been disbursed by them. Zia mentioned the vibrancy of local politics and the sense of ownership created by the CDCs and recounted examples of CDCs standing up to intimidation from the Taliban. He also demonstrated how rural areas in ‘dire need’ of financial services are being targeted by the Afghan government’s microfinance initiative, which has more than 400,000 borrowers. Last year 77 percent of the borrowers were women and the repayment rate is 95 percent. Challenges Nevertheless, there have been notable setbacks in Afghanistan too. Zia said the Taliban have burnt 220 schools, he raised the problem of insecurity and said that the number of heroin addicts in Afghanistan has increased to one million. When asked about opium production, Zia said the Afghan government is determined to get rid of the poppy as it leads to three miseries – poverty, insecurity, and addiction. But he also said that the international community has to take a holistic approach to the narcotics problem because as long as there is demand for the poppy it will continue to be grown. Overall, Zia acknowledged that development work in his country is ‘just a start’ and that the Afghan government needs a strong partnership with the international community. He added: ‘We need to prioritise among our priorities. There is more to Afghanistan than fighting. Progress is being made.’ Zia delivered his presentation at a lunchtime seminar and he also participated in discussions held at IDS as part of a two-day meeting about microfinance. Source: Institute of Development Studies |
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