PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDP ON AFGHANISTAN

At Headquarters this afternoon, top officials from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) briefed correspondents on the preliminary needs assessment  -- some $15 billion over the next decade -- for the reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan.  UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown said, despite much international debate over figures, it was of critical importance to adequately finance an Afghan central government that could rise to the moment and allay the fears of a people that had suffered nearly 20 years of conflict.

Mr. Malloch Brown said that by meeting the estimated needs for Afghanistan, the donor community could help achieve the central goals of the overall peace-building process in that country:  restore the link between Afghans and their Government and, following years of nothing but violence, ensure that citizens could finally view their Government as a source of security and stability in the service of a common and tangible good.  Rebuilding that critical social contract between people and Government was the key to the long-term stability and viability of an Afghan State, he added.

Joined at the press briefing by Julia Taft, the Programme’s Assistant Administrator for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Mr. Malloch Brown informed reporters that the complete needs assessment was available on the agency’s Web site – www.undp.org/Afghanistan.  It had been prepared jointly by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UNDP, and included estimated reconstruction costs of about $5 billion for the first two and a half years, the period spanning the current interim authority and the soon-to-be–formed transitional government.  The five-year figure was set at $10 billion.  Mr. Malloch Brown said that assessment did not include humanitarian aid, but recovery and reconstruction efforts linked to overarching political goals of building a viable State.

Though all the talk was about Afghans’ ownership of their future, he said, the reality was that the Afghan people must be given the resources to effect and assert that ownership.  Sadly, as half the population was under 20 years of age, most of the country had no memory of a central government that could effectively deliver education programmes, basic health services, national security or even a reasonable civil administration that could respond to the needs of the people.  So the goal was to be forward-looking and to get donor governments to move beyond the one- or two-year commitment schemes.  Focusing on a decade-long strategy would also be important for ensuring the people of Afghanistan that the international donor community would remain engaged in the process for years to come.

He noted that the initial figures for the assessment had increased when discussions with the members of the Interim Authority and the wider Afghan citizenry revealed a critical issue that had not been sufficiently addressed -– the provision of adequate security.  “For most Afghans”, he said, “their number one concern is security and adequate policing in their neighbourhoods and villages.”

Another issue that had increased the needs estimate was the realization that Afghanistan was a country where many of the central bank vaults were entirely empty, likened to echo chambers by Afghanistan’s Minister of Finance, Mr. Malloch Brown said.  So in that sense, there was no prospect of the country being able to

immediately generate its own revenue base.  So the UNDP and its partners had made very high estimates of the Government’s need for strong recurrent budget support.  Indeed, during the first and second years, it must be assumed that all of the Government’s budget costs must be met by international donors.  That figure would decrease after five years -- assuming that the Government would function off the revenue it raised -- and the UNDP and its partners would be involved in only investment activities by that point.

Of the estimated priority needs of $1.8 billion for the fist year,

Mr. Malloch Brown said that $270 million had been earmarked for the security sector; $260 million for governance and economic management; $260 million for the social and education sector; $170 million for infrastructure; $70 million for agriculture; and $100 million for general technical assistance and capacity-building. 

On the issue of civil servant salaries, Mr. Malloch Brown recalled that

the donors had decided last December to organize an interim fund of an initial  $20 million to cover such costs.  Commitments thus far amounted to some

$19 million, including $2 million pledged today by the Government of the Netherlands.  As ever, the difficulty was translating commitments to cash in hand and, currently, only some $5 million had actually been transferred to the UNDP.  He added, however, that governments were working hard to move quickly, so he expected that figure to rise to some $14 million over the next few days.  He hoped to be able to provide Afghanistan at least $10 million in the coming days to help ensure a “real” central government that could meet its real obligations.

Once the funds to cover the salaries were transferred, he continued, the challenge was for the new administration to effect disbursement.  The UNDP and its collaborators had provided a senior accountant to provide assistance and help ensure that the disbursement structure was sound.  Following that, he said it would be up to the Afghans to settle balance-of-power issues between the regions and the central government -– no international agency could second-guess indigenous Afghan political processes.

Previewing the needs assessment ahead of next week’s donors conference in Tokyo, where high-level government officials and ministers were scheduled to discuss the estimates further, Mr. Malloch Brown said the goal of the meeting was to attempt to pin down five-year commitments.  He cautioned that some governments were proscribed from entering into long-term commitments.  Still, the point would be to get relatively clear commitments to which governments could be held when the glare of international press coverage of the situation in Afghanistan had faded.

When asked whether management of the funds would place too much power in an international institution, Mr. Malloch Brown said a needs assessment was just that –- it was not a programmatic envelope, where money would be given directly to the UNDP and its partners.  The reality was that once the partners agreed on the needs assessment, it would then be up to the Afghan administration with its donor supports to elaborate the appropriate programmes and mechanisms to distribute the forms and implement agreed initiatives.  Indeed, the whole thrust was not to put power in the hands of international agencies, but to advance the notion of full participation by the Afghan people to allow their full ownership of the efforts to make a new start for their country.  “The model must be responsive to and reflective of strong national ownership”, he added.

Mr. Malloch Brown also said the needs assessment included special financial measures to support the return of the Afghan diaspora.  He also said that he had been working actively with the foreign ministers of neighbouring countries, including Iran and Pakistan, to try and ensure they could play an active part in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.  The UNDP had also consulted with the Afghan diaspora in both those countries about reconstruction priorities.  “We are very anxious to make this a non-traditional approach”, he added, “beyond checks from traditional donors, we hope there is real support from neighbouring countries, as well as Afghans living in other countries, including the United States.”

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