Welthungerhilfe response to Afghanistan conference: "Cash cure" is not enough

School kids in Afghanistan. © Grossmann(25.01.2010) In Welthungerhilfe's view, pledges of finance are not crucial to the success of the international conference on Afghanistan in London on the 28th of January. "A 'Cash cure' is not enough by itself", says Wolfgang Jamann, Welthungerhilfe's Secretary General. "Instead, what is needed in Afghanistan is a paradigm shift in terms of the international involvement. It's not a question of 'how much', but of 'how', above all in the case of civil reconstruction."  

As Welthungerhilfe explains in its current 'focus', the international community has fallen into a trap in Afghanistan. Under pressure to quickly translate as much funding as possible into results, it has bought the support of dubious local rulers. By doing so, it has seriously damaged the credibility of the West in the eyes of the Afghan population.

This finding applies in particular to the so-called "quick impact" projects. These are development measures which are primarily implemented by the military in order to "win the hearts and minds" of the population. The USA has just increased funding for this area to US $1.2 billion – that's as much as the Afghan government's budgets for education and health put together.

Welthungerhilfe is demanding that the development measures are carefully planned and coordinated, and that the Afghan population should be more heavily involved. "The Afghan people must be included more in the planning of their country's future", says Jamann. "At the Afghanistan conference in London, and in all the subsequent processes, representatives of civil society shouldn't be banished to the sidelines as previously, but should sit alongside everyone else at the negotiating table. It must be ensured that their concerns are listened to by senior government representatives."

The representatives of civil society include, for example, the "Afghan Civil Society Forum", the "Agency Coordination Body for Afghan Relief", or the "Afghan NGOs Coordination Bureau", which can organise such a process and represent the interests of the rural regions.