Donors Conference: more money for infrastructures
Paris (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Caritas Internationalis is appealing to donor countries and all stakeholders that are meeting at the International Afghanistan Support Conference in Paris to make the fight against poverty and for social justice their primary objectives.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will ask donors to support a 50-billion-dollar development plan over the next five years to rebuild the country and train the Afghan national army and security forces.
The United States has pledged 10 billion dollars over the next two years, but the Paris conference “is more than just a pledging conference for donors,” said UN Special Representative for Afghanistan Kai Eide. “We will seek to forge a 'new deal' between the government of Afghanistan and the international community,” he added.
International donors must bring "much greater coherence" to aid efforts and channel more resources in state-building projects while the Afghan government must do more to fight corruption, Eide said.
More than 80 donor countries and international organisations are attending the conference in the French capital. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US First Lady Laura Bush are among the participants.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who opened the conference, announced more French aid in reconstruction, the presence of an additional battalion this summer and greater international coordination.
Despite some progress, six years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban much remains to be done.
Caritas’ appeal on the eve of the Paris conference said that security was not everything, that reducing poverty must be a crucial goal to pursue.
Indeed Afghanistan is extremely poor. According to the Afghan National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, in 2007 45 per cent of the population was estimated to have trouble meeting daily food requirements.
This year’s worldwide food shortage is especially acute in Afghanistan because it is heavily dependent on imports.
For Caritas, the international community should focus on developing consensus in the population in favour of the allies, greater transparency in managing economic aid and building a fair political and legal system.
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