D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 5, September/October 2002, p. 15-17)

The refugees now flowing back to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries are finding a country devastated by years of war and drought. Afghanistan needs all the help it can get. This is where the international donor community can show that a country which is determined on peaceful reconstruction will not be left alone. Germany, which looks back on a long history of cooperation with Afghanistan, made a massive commitment right from the start. The special task force set up in the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) reports here on its planning and assistance provided so far.

The reconstruction of Afghanistan after 20 years of civil war faces the international community with a great challenge. The country’s socio-economic data make this clear. The life expectancy of Afghani men and women is only 44 years, one in four children dies before reaching the age of five, and one in 12 women dies in childbirth. Only 38 per cent of the boys and 3 per cent of the girls attend primary school. About 800,000 people, or 4 per cent of the total population, are crippled due to war action or mines. Large parts of the infrastructure have been destroyed. Only 23 per cent of the Afghani people have access to clean drinking water, and only 6 per cent to electricity. Large sections of Afghanistan’s road network must be rehabilitated.

Following the collapse of the Taliban regime the donor community reacted rapidly by getting a comprehensive international aid programme underway. After the setting up of a ‘steering group’ at an initial meeting in Washington (November 20, 2001) chaired by the USA, Japan, the European Union (EU) and Saudi Arabia, the first bases for an international division of labour and fast implementation of ‘Quick Impact Projects’ to alleviate immediate need were created in a series of harmonisation conferences held in rapid succession at the end of last year (Islamabad, November 27-29; Berlin, December 5-6; Brussels, December 20-21).

At all these conferences Germany emphasised from early on important principles which had to be observed in an aid programme:

• The leading role of the Afghan government in reconstruction and in coordination of international aid;
• The need for a balanced aid programme in ethnic and regional terms;
• The special promotion of women and girls in all sectors;
• The use of the potential and experience of NGOs;
• The integration of Afghani exile repatriates in the reconstruction process;
• The fulfilment of the ‘Petersberg Principles’ by the Afghan government

Coordination of the international aid
programme

At the international donor conference in Tokyo (January 20-23, 2002) the interim Afghan government presented an initial reconstruction plan, drawn up with the support of the World Bank and the UNDP, which put the total cost over the next 10 years at US$ 14.5 billion. In all, the international community pledged at the conference US$ 4.5 billion in aid funds for the period 2002-2006, of which US$ 2.1 billion, or almost half, was promised by the EU. German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said Germany would contribute 320 million euros (80 million euros per year from 2002 to 2005), the largest bilateral input of any EU member country. At the same time, and as the first representative of a donor country to do so, she tabled a strategy paper for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Continuing its traditional friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan, Germany got assistance measures underway without delay. Ms Wieczorek-Zeul, the first Western government minister to visit Afghanistan, spent two days in Kabul as early as December 13-14, 2001, and pledged initial emergency measures. With the appointment of a Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Working Group (BMZ, GTZ, KfW) assigned to him, the BMZ put in place the institutional preconditions for ensuring a coherent aid programme which was integrated in the international effort, as well as for fast implementation of the pledges made in Tokyo.

Rapid and flexible implementation of the aid measures promised in Tokyo is urgent not only because of the immediate need of the Afghan people, but also to promote a peaceful and stable political development in Afghanistan as part of the fight against international terrorism. Immediate measures in the sectors of health, education, drinking water and road-building would at the same time make clear to the people that peace is worthwhile and in the long run will lead to a noticeable improvement in their daily lives. Fast and visible reconstruction of the country can promote acceptance of the peace process. Germany therefore is spending the allocated funds in the context of a ‘crash programme’. To accelerate the aid measures the appropriate structures were created by seconding a representative of the BMZ to the German Embassy in Kabul as well as opening an Office for German Development Cooperation there which unites the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the German Development Bank (KfW) and the German Development Service (DED) under one roof.

Germany coordinates its aid closely with its European and non-European partners within the framework of the Afghanistan Steering Group, as well as in situ at quarterly meetings of the Implementation Group (led by multilateral institutions) and at the fortnightly meetings of the Standing Committee (under Afghani chairmanship).

The first meeting of the Implementation Group in Kabul (April 10-11 this year) confirmed impressively that the Afghanis have taken the reins of aid coordination firmly in their own hands. With the Afghan Aid Coordination Agency (AACA), the Afghani side has set up an efficient organisation to coordinate the projects.

Development-oriented emergency
aid and reconstruction

The BMZ’s immediate measures in Afghanistan are aimed on the one hand at building up sound state structures, and on the other hand at winning over the masses of the Afghan people to the peace process. The special challenges in Afghanistan, however, do not permit a neat time-scale for the deployment of instruments of humanitarian aid, emergency aid and development assistance according to the United Nations concept of a ‘emergency aid-development-continuum’. Humanitarian aid, satisfying basic needs and institution-building (up to the establishment of a central bank) must take place parallel to and in close meshing with each other. This need is also in line with the ‘instrument mix’ of the German assistance programme, in which humanitarian aid, emergency aid and Technical, Personnel and Financial Cooperation come into play in a coordinated way and according to their respective special merits.

As part of a ‘100-day crash program’, German assistance focused initially on the sectors of health and education. Five hospitals in Kabul have been rehabilitated since the beginning of this year, and work is underway on a further 13. In addition, operating theatre equipment, medicines, child surgery equipment and TB laboratory equipment have been supplied for various hospitals in Kabul. Teaching and learning aids were delivered for the ‘Back to school’ programme of the Education Ministry and UNICEF. German assistance has also rehabilitated a total of 17 schools since the beginning of this year, including two girls’ schools and six co-ed schools. Work on another 13 schools was due for early completion. About 30,000 households, three hospitals and a number of state facilities (schools, an orphanage and the university in Kabul have already been supplied with water. Extensive other repairs of the water supply system (pipelines, feeders, pumps, etc.) in Kabul and Herat are underway.

These immediately effective and visible measures point the way to the future, which the Afghani people are noting positively. The same applies to the installation of 90 km/56.25 miles of street lighting in Kabul, which will make a visible contribution to the city’s security. At present the city is in complete darkness at night.

For the flexible implementation of smaller immediate measures a small-scale project fund was set up. This is administered by the local GTZ office and is open to Afghani and German NGOs and other suitable partners. Cash-for-work measures for unemployed young people, for example, have been financed from the fund.

These immediate measures are supplemented at the institutional level by consultancy and training for the public administration in the sectors of health, education, water and finance. Since during the Taliban regime even these core sectors of state responsibility were scarcely managed by the government and were maintained mostly by Afghani and western NGOs, there is now a lack of qualified civil servants to handle them. That is why, besides providing advanced training for local staff, the BMZ promotes the repatriation of qualified exile Afghanis from Germany.

Participation of women

Promotion of the participation of Afghani women in the reconstruction of their country is the most important cross-sectoral task of all German assistance programmes. Providing women with access to education and healthcare is the first step. Initial and advanced training, support for founding small-scale enterprises, and legal advice is to ensure the participation of women in political and economic life in the long term. Particularly in rural areas, however, cautious action which takes account of cultural and religious traditions is advisable.

The security situation and peace
process

All donors still emphasise that improving the security situation in Afghanistan is a precondition for its successful reconstruction. Therefore the donors agreed a division of labour in the security sector by which Germany assumed the leading role in building up the police, while the USA is playing this role in training the Afghani army, Britain in combating the drugs trade, and the UN in demobilisation measures. Italy has made clear its special interest in building up Afghanistan’s judicial system.

Sustainable improvements in the security sector, however, cannot be achieved solely by measures that start with restoring the state’s monopoly of power. The building up of constitutional structures as the basis for international support in the army and police sector therefore has a high priority. Only when regulative policy aspects can be linked with a restoration of the rule of law will they alleviate conflicts in the long term. That is why, in the context of ‘good governance’, the BMZ promotes, among other things, the initial and advanced training of public prosecutors and judges (both men and women), the work of the Afghan Lawyers Association, and the Constitutional, Judicial and Truth Commission still to be formed.

As immediate aid in implementing the peace process as stipulated in the Petersberg Agreement, the German Federal government also provided US$ 3.5 million for the holding of the Loya Jirga (June 10-16), the traditional assembly of the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The GTZ assumed the organisational support for the assembly, which included building accommodation for the delegates, logistics and conference management. The ‘Emergency Loya Jirga’ was held in the grounds of the Kabul Polytechnic in a 2,400 sq.-metre tent equipped with state-of-the-art conference technology. The GTZ’s budget for these services was about US$ 7 million. This emergency conference was accepted by all Afghani ethnic and religious groups as a forum to elect a broad-based transitional government to serve from July this year to mid-2004.

Besides the decay of state structures in Afghanistan and the growth in power of the tribes and local warlords, the contrast between Kabul and the rest of the country is a source of conflict. Therefore the international community’s support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan must as soon as possible be visible in the rural areas as well and must not be limited to Kabul. That is why the provinces of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif were chosen as initial key areas for German engagement in the sectors of health, education and water. In cooperation with German NGOs, including German Agro Action, measures have already been implemented in those regions. In November last year, a food security programme was initiated in Jalalabad and Herat which not only aims at stepping up agricultural production there by supplying seed and rehabilitating rural irrigation, but also encompasses income-generating measures for women and evening classes for girls.

The measures are reinforced by the DED. By the end of this year, 30 DED development workers, including Afghani men and women living in Germany, will have flown to Afghanistan. Among other tasks, they will work in cooperation with German Agro Action in the sectors of food security and promotion of women’s centres.

Multilateral inputs

A central challenge in the reconstruction of Afghanistan was first of all the financing of the Afghani interim government, which had no state revenue of its own. Minister Wieczorek-Zeul therefore initiated in her talks with UNDP Administrator Marc Malloch Brown the setting up of a flexible fund into which Germany, as the first bilateral donor to do so, paid two million euros. In view of the undiminished need for money for this fund, titled the Afghan Interim Administration Trust Fund and administered by the UNDP, the minister pledged a further two million euros for it at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Among other things, the fund finances the pay of Afghani police, teachers, doctors and nurses. At total of US$ 24 million has been paid into the fund so far, compared with pledges totalling more than US$ 32 million. The fund was ended in June this year and turned into the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).

The ARTF is to promote investment projects, cover running costs and assist the integration of returning exile Afghanis in the reconstruction process. At the meeting of the Implementation Group in Kabul the donors pledged a total of US$ 58 million, including 10 million euros from Germany. The fund will be administered by the World Bank as trustee. Allocation of funds at the request of the Afghan government will be approved by a management committee representing the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the UNDP, and reviewed by a donor committee representing all donors with annual contributions of at least US$ 7.5 million.

At the Implementation Group meeting the BMZ announced a special input of 2.2 million euros for the World Food Programme, which focuses on food for children and sick people. The BMZ has also earmarked another two million euros this year for the UNHCR for the repatriation and reintegration of Afghani refugees who return voluntarily from Iran and Pakistan.

Repatriate programme

The German Federal government is prepared to support Afghanis living in Germany who wish to help in the reconstruction of their country. About 70,000 Afghanis with varying residence or stay status are living in Germany. Many of them have very good qualifications. In a first step, already qualified Afghani men and women will be seconded to Afghanistan as experts in projects and to support public administration. A great number of number of applications have already been received by the responsible German offices. The BMZ’s implementing organisations in Kabul are currently examining suitable opportunities for deploying the repatriates.

In addition, the BMZ has launched a longer-term repatriation programme under which less-qualified Afghani repatriates are receiving advanced training appropriate to the local job market. They are supported by wage costs subsidies and loans to small-scale entrepreneurs for founding businesses.