Afghanistan promised $16bn in development aid

INTERNATIONAL donors have offered $16bn (£10bn) in development aid for Afghanistan to reassure the government it will not be abandoned after most foreign troops pull out in two years. They stressed the aid would be closely monitored to assure it was not squandered through corruption or mismanagement.Donors from about 70 countries and organisations, attending a one-day conference in Tokyo, set a baseline for aid in the period through and beyond 2014, when most Nato-led foreign combat troops will leave and Afghanistan will assume responsibility for most of its security.The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said the country faced a hard road, but vowed to improve security and fight corruption as the country moved toward a more self-reliant future.The $16bn is close to what the World Bank believes Afghanistan needs to close the gap between how much money it can afford and how much it needs to sustain its transition. The Japanese hosts had said before the conference they hoped to secure pledges of nearly $4bn per year, meaning the result was in line with expectations. A follow-up conference will be held in Britain in 2014.“I am encouraged that the member states are willing to mobilise $16bn,” the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said. “Afghanistan has made important progress, but the gains are fragile.”The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said America, by far the largest donor, planned to maintain its assistance at about $2bn a year until 2017. Japan, the second-largest donor, said it would provide up to $3bn through 2016; Germany said it would keep its contribution to rebuilding and development at its current level of $536m a year, at least until 2016. The Asian Development Bank announced it is providing $1.2bn through 2016.Clinton, who arrived in Tokyo on Saturday after visiting Kabul, said Afghan security “cannot only be measured by the absence of war”. “It has to be measured by whether people have jobs and economic opportunity; whether they believe the government is meeting their needs,” she said.The donors also expressed concern over how the money would be handled. The 2014 meeting in Britain will check progress toward “mutual accountability” and conduct a review and monitoring process to assure development aid is not diverted by corrupt officials or mismanaged – major hurdles in putting aid projects into practice thus far.Afghanistan, one of the world’s 10 poorest countries, has received nearly $60bn in civilian aid since 2002. The World Bank says foreign aid comprises nearly the equivalent of the country’s gross domestic product. The donors stressed the aid had made a big difference to the country.In the decade since the US invasion in 2001, there have been major improvements in education and healthcare, with nearly 8 million children, including 3 million girls, enrolled in schools. That compares with 1 million children more than a decade ago, when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.AFP