More than five years after the defeat of the Taleban in Afghanistan, the failure of international aid to make a difference to Afghanistan is now having serious security consequences.
The amount of money promised per head for Afghanistan was far lower than in other recent post-conflict countries, and too little of it has gone into increasing the capacity of the Afghan government to run things for itself.
Most Americans don’t realize that virtually all “foreign aid” funds must be spent in the United States with U.S. firms. Welfare plans for domestic producers aside, the policy means that money doesn’t get into the hands of ordinary citizens in the client nation.
In a report more than a year ago, the World Bank warned of the dangers of an ‘aid juggernaut’, a parallel world operating outside the government economy, with Afghans not even able to bid for major infrastructure contracts, such as roads.
Some small rural schemes – drainage, clinics, small power projects and schools are now being built through the National Solidarity Programme. That is a fund managed and distributed through the Afghan government, with almost all of the money coming from international donors.
Building up the institutions of the state is after all a central part of fighting insurgencies, according to the new counter-insurgency manual being used by US forces – the first written since the end of the Vietnam War.
The manual even emphasises that the new state does not have to do things especially well: “The host nation doing something tolerably is normally better than us (the United States) doing it well.”
But the doctrine has not yet worked through to changing the culture of how to spend aid money, either through USAid, or the Pentagon which runs its own aid programme.
Detailed, well-researched article – worth a reflective read. Originally, I was reviewing articles spinning from the UN report describing continued expansion in the opium trade. This one – at least – tries to examine more of the cause-and-effect relationships affecting the whole country.
Yep===name just even only just ONE BushCo program that is not corptheftocracy in disguise. No local bidders (no bidding at all?) is routine in Iraq and New Orleans as well.
Think ethanol is an oil savings program??? Nope. Just more corporate welfare/payback/fraud. BushCo is certainly the WORST of this evil practice, but not alone.
Sadly, there’s little or nothing new about our nation’s failures at foreign policy. We inherited the old colonial model – just as the Brits and French and their peers were being kicked out of their national versions of manifest destiny. Never missed a beat. Never changed a thing.
What we had going was good will from having stepped in from the safety of Fortress America to bring the largest industrial machine in the world to bear on the Axis. We’ve poured that all down the rathole of imperialism as quickly as we could.
From Asia to the Middle East to Africa, American foreign policy has been a closed shop. No real disagreement between Tweedledee and dumber over the past half-century and more.
Not that I’m cynical about it, you understand. But, the Ugly American was written in 1958 about policies already in place.
it’s not really bush’s fault — most americans hate non-americans, most just don’t have the balls to come out and say so, that’s why no politician will authorize giving aid directly to the people.
you think i’m kidding? go ahead — name a country whose people you really like; i bet you either just made something up or it’s just the country your ancestors came from, or someplace you had a nice vacation, and i bet most countries on your list don’t need foreign aid.
now, name a country whose people you really dislike; long list, eh?
now picture giving away tax dollars to people in a foreign country — even liberals recoil at the idea of some corrupt jerk taking it all for themselves
but what do you do? how can we see to it that our money is being spent on feeding and schooling the people we claim to be liberating?
i don’t know, either — what a clusterf**k
The same goes for Canada, and I imagine most other western nations. Aid money is really just an industry subsidy in disguise.
I betcha Halliburton knows how to do that dance.
#3…..grog….I can honestly say that there isn’t a single country I dislike or hate. But, I do have a list a half mile long of GOVERMENTS that I have a healthy dislike of. From outright dictatorships to the more subtle forms of oppression by these goverments on their own people or others.
I like to feel that on a person to person basis, there would be far more individuals that like most people from places other than their own country, than people who just hate or dislike most other people.
The way that international aid works in Afghanistan is well documented in Sarah Chayes’s book, The Punishment of Virtue. (Besides, it’s a good read.)
When I was in Afghanistan 4 years ago, I discovered that Church World Service is working in a good way. They select programs that Afghans have already started and gives them money and training so that they can do their work better. Their entire staff in Afghanistan when I was there was Muslim, so there wasn’t any hidden conversion agenda. Also, Kiva (www.kiva.org) is a way that you can help an individual Afghan by giving them a small business loan. I believe that the main reason these organizations have such a good effect is that they are not tied to any government agencies or agendas.