PARIS // Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, has pledged US$250 million (Dh918 million) towards the rebuilding of Afghanistan. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, announced the donation in Paris yesterday as part of a $20bn aid package to Afghanistan by more than 65 countries. The largest donation, US$10.2bn, was put forward by the United States at the Paris conference that exposed frustrations both at the inefficiency of the Afghan government and the failure of donors themselves to coordinate their aid.
Six-and-a-half years after US-led forces toppled the Taliban government, Afghanistan is still grappling with an insurgency, drug trafficking, corruption and poverty. The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner initially said the donors meeting raised $19.95bn from the 68 countries and more than 15 international organisations that attended. He then provided a second estimate of $21.42bn and said it was best to put the figure at "around" $20bn.
"We did not expect such a considerable sum," Mr Kouchner told a closing news conference. "We hoped, in our wildest dreams, that the total might be around $17bn." While the conference was designed to showcase international support for Afghanistan, it was not immediately clear how much of the money pledged represented fresh contributions, nor how much was in the form of grants or loans. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Afghanistan has made strides since the Taliban was ousted but she, like many officials at the meeting, "strongly urged" Kabul to clean up corruption and improve its governance.
"We must continue to commit to increasing the effectiveness and coherence of our assistance while ensuring that it reaches Afghans and addresses their most urgent needs," she said. "This means successfully fighting corruption, improving accountability and it means Afghan ownership of development." At the news conference, Mr Kouchner said it was naive to expect the country to eliminate corruption overnight. "I am certain that they will fight against corruption and we have ... to watch," he added.
Afghanistan asked the donors to help fund a $50bn five-year development plan and the Afghan president Hamid Karzai said his country needed aid to be better coordinated as well as more help in institution-building to fight corruption. "The current development process that is marred by confusion and parallel structures undermines institution building," Mr Karzai said. "While Afghanistan needs large amounts of aid, precisely how aid is spent is just as important."
Afghanistan depends on aid for 90 per cent of its spending. But international donors have fallen behind in paying what they have already pledged, and much of the money goes straight back to donor countries in salaries, purchase of goods and profits. Some Afghans were sceptical about the meeting, reflecting the view that vast sums have been wasted by inept or corrupt officials and little has trickled down to ordinary people.