By John Keating, KUNA,
Paris : Around 80 international delegations are attending the opening of a one-day conference on Afghanistan in Paris Thursday, to boost the development strategy of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The conference also aims at assuring the Afghan President of a commitment to his country’s security in view of an ongoing and ever-resilient Taliban campaign.
Afghanistan is seeking just over USD 50 billion in support over a five-year period and Thursday’s conference, which groups 65 national delegations and 15 from international institutions and NGOs, is expected to raise about USD 20 billion.
Out of the USD 50 billion requested, USD 14.1 billion is to be set aside for security spending over five years, particularly for training Afghan police, where there are considerable problems, and for army and police equipment and other purposes.
The Afghan army is considered less in need of major assistance compared with police, even though armed forces’ numbers have grown from 1,500 in 2003 to 63,000 today.
Many governments, like France, which are involved in Afghanistan have already undertaken training programs for the Afghan army.
Thursday’s gathering, which is co-chaired by France, Afghanistan, and the UN, is the third conference of its kind, following similar meetings in Berlin and London over the past four years.
Eric Chevalier, Special International Affairs Advisor to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, stressed that the conference is not simply a “donors’ conference” but it aims to “give a dynamic” to improving the situation in Afghanistan.” In an exclusive interview with KUNA, Chevalier said the Paris conference is an additional step in a process that began some time ago and he noted the event will be attended “mostly at the level of Foreign Ministers.” “It is a process which does not begin and end in Paris,” he said, “I would not say it is a new departure, but it’s a new step,” he added.
He remarked that “there were other important moments, for example the London Compact for Afghanistan two years ago, which was also a very important step.” The senior official, who has been intimately involved in the preparation for the event, said Thursday “is another important step towards development and stabilization in Afghanistan and what we expect is a renewed commitment from the Afghans and the international community to this partnership.” Chevalier stressed that “the Paris conference is not mainly focused on security”.
On Thursday, the idea is to have “complementary discussions on development, governance, and of course security will be part of the discussion, be definition.
“We hope that by strengthening the national Afghan army we can start a hand over, not so far away, starting in the coming months, probably,” Chevalier indicated to KUNA.
“Also, agriculture and energy are two key elements that have probably been a bit neglected over the past years.” The French official noted that there had been “huge consultations” among the 80 delegations attending Thursday and they had stressed that “energy and agriculture came forth as key issues to be covered.” He stated that energy was crucial because development depended largely on capacity to provide electricity and this was especially relevant to the private sector.
On the regional context, Chevalier revealed that all of Afghanistan’s neighbors had been involved in the extensive preparations for Thursday’s conference and regional partners and neighboring countries would be attending “at senior level.” This includes Pakistan and Iran, in particular, where the Afghan government alleges the anti-government Taliban militia get some support.
“We hope that this will be an opportunity for commitments from regional countries to help stabilize Afghanistan.” The conference will also tackle such issues as aid and how it is managed and problems with high administrative costs for delivery of aid from certain countries.
An official close to the organizers of Thursday’s conference pointed out that, in real terms, only 60 percent of aid actually reaches Afghanistan in value terms as the remainder goes back out through a “revolving door” to pay “implementers” in the donor country or its agencies.
An effort is to be made to better coordinate aid to avoid this kind of problem, which has brought strong complaints from the Afghans.
Karzai’s Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS) has mustered the broad support of the international community and the United Nations Special Envoy Kai Eide is working with the Administration in Kabul to promote development and to coordinate with the international community and Afghan authorities on the aid issue.
A review of the aid issue is underway, sources indicated, and at the end of June or early July, there is to be a “rationalization or streamlining” of the structure that oversees aid in Afghanistan to see how it can be better coordinated with a greater role for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
There are hopes that “a certain amount of discipline” can be brought to the aid structures and this can be “imposed very legitimately now that we have the Road Map of the ANDS,” an official familiar with the aid issue told KUNA.
The UNAMA, which has 200 international workers and around 1,600 locals in its employment, will undertake a review of staff requirements in view of developments on the aid issue.
Sources also indicated that in line with UNSC resolution 1806, the UN would be willing to be part of any reconciliation effort by the government and could act as a “facilitator” between the warring parties, “when necessary and when requested.” However, it was stressed that Karzai has not made a request to the UN at this stage.
Other officials here, who requested anonymity, did point out that “enormous progress” is required in a number of areas like governance, corruption, and rule of law in Afghanistan.
One official stressed that the security situation would dictate how quickly progress could be achieved and “nobody anticipated the levels of violence we are seeing today.” The official also stipulated that looking at the current violence, “not all factors are internal to Afghanistan,” thus the importance of good will and a strong commitment from the country’s neighbors.