1 20 October 2010 AFGHANISTAN REVIEW Inside This Issue Economic Stabilization This document is intended to provide an overview of relevant sector Governance & Participation events in Afghanistan from 14 October–19 October 2010. More Humanitarian Assistance comprehensive information is available on the Civil-Military Overview Infrastructure (CMO) at www.cimicweb.org. Hyperlinks to original source material are highlighted in blue and underlined in the embedded text. Justice & Reconciliation Security Social Well-Being For further information on CFC activities related to Afghanistan or inquiries about this publication, please contact the Afghanistan Team Manager: Valeria Davanzo, [email protected] or the Afghanistan Editor: Amber Ram- sey, [email protected] ECONOMIC STABILIZATION Steve Zyck, [email protected] / +1 757-683-4275 Back to top Afghanistan‟s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has released rity sector, increasing prices for basic foodstuffs and a „pre-budget report‟ which cites impressive gains in the uncertainty and unpredictability surrounding 2009/10 and projects growth in certain sectors in donor funding. 2010/11. Key highlights from the report include the following: Afghanistan‟s Investment Support Agency (AISA) also announced that the Afghan economy had The Afghan economy grew by 22.5% in benefited from USD 500 million in recorded invest- 2009/10, although growth is expected to slow to ment in 2009/10, showing a 6% increase from the 8.9% in 2010/11 and further drop to approxi- year prior. According to Tolo News, half of this mately 7% in 2011/12. However, the mining, amount was internal investment whereas the other financial services and transport sectors are an- half comprised foreign direct investment (FDI). The ticipating growth rates of 30%, 35% and 20%, construction and health-care sectors benefited most respectively, in 2010/11. heavily from this investment, while agriculture re- Government revenues benefited from strong ceived only 5% (approximately USD 25 million). economic performance in 2009/10 and increased by more than 50% relative to the previous year. A new private-sector strategy is currently being de- The Afghan government expects to collect AFN veloped by the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce 88.9 billion (approx. USD 2.07 billion) in and Industries (ACCI), reports Tolo News. Accord- 2011/12, driving domestic revenue up to 10.4% ing to the article, the ACCI is developing this strat- of GDP. egy though a nationwide consultative process which The MoF has demanded „realistic‟ budgets from will seek to uncover challenges faced by the private other government ministries in response to chal- sector and generate proposals for overcoming or lenges posed by inflated budget requests in pre- resolving them. vious years. Ministries are requested to work with donors to agree on assistance levels for Each of the topics noted above are addressed from future fiscal years and to only propose spending a historical perspective in a recently released report on projects for which resources have already by the CFC entitled The Afghan Economy: A Brief been identified. History. (Comments? Click here) While positive, the report does suggest challenges pertaining to the cost of Afghanistan‟s growing secu- FOR MORE DISCUSSION CLICK HERE 2 GOVERNANCE & PARTICIPATION Anne-Catherine Claude, [email protected] / +1 757-683-4368 Back to top Preliminary results for the 18 September parliamen- Prior to the announcement of the preliminary re- tary elections, expected to be released on 17 Octo- sults, the New York Times estimated that nearly ber (see 14 October CFC Weekly Afghanistan Re- 25% of votes were likely to be thrown out due to view, Governance and Participation section), were fraud. Additionally, the Free and Fair Election Foun- further postponed by the Independent Election Com- dation of Afghanistan (FEFA) told Pajhwok Afghan mission (IEC), reported Al Jazeera. The IEC an- News that poor management on the part of the IEC nounced that the publication of the results would be affected the outcome of the September parliamen- postponed for a few more days to ensure the results tary elections. FEFA Executive Director Jandad Spin were “accurate and precise”. According to IEC offi- Ghar is quoted saying that “IEC officials had vast cials following the announcement, the results would resources on the day of election, but they did not be announced on 20 October. use them properly,” which he suggests resulted in widespread fraud and irregularities. As planned, the IEC released full preliminary results for the 18 September parliamentary elections on 20 The Washington Post reports that in an effort to October. Fazel Ahmad Manawi, the Chairman of the address corruption, Integrity Watch Afghanistan IEC, announced that due to fraud, 1.3 million votes (IWA), in partnership with village elders, has devel- were disqualified from the total 5.6 million votes oped teams of local inspectors to monitor projects cast. Additionally, ballots received from 2,543 of the and denounce cases of fraud and corruption at the 17,744 polling stations opened on election day, were local level. IWA is a non-governmental organisation dismissed. The final election results should be an- (NGO) focused on research, monitoring and advo- nounced at the end of this month, but could face cacy related to anti-corruption in Afghanistan. Cor- further delays as claims of fraud are investigated by ruption and poor governance in many Afghan prov- the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). inces have helped the Taliban and other insurgent groups gain ground across the country (see 09 Sep- According to IEC spokesperson Noor Muhammad tember CFC Weekly Afghanistan Review and 29 Noor, votes from 571 polling centres (out of more September CFC Weekly Afghanistan Review, Gov- than 5,500 opened on election day) were invalidated ernance and Participation section). The IWA initia- and votes from an additional 1,277 centres were tive has reportedly seen success and has helped to recounted. The Associated Press reports that the cut down on graft in the cities and villages where disqualification of votes will most likely affect the inspectors are present. (Comments? Click here) final results in a number of volatile provinces. AP also reports that more than 50 polling centres were excluded in three provinces: Paktika, Kandahar and OR ORE ISCUSSION LICK ERE Herat. F M D C H HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE Erin Foster, [email protected] / +1 757-683-4233 Back to top BBC News reports that Afghanistan is currently ex- Acting Minister of Public Health Dr. Suraya Dalil periencing an outbreak of the tropical skin disease stated that due to the high costs of medical treat- leichmaniasis. This skin disease is transmitted by a ment, the government only had the resources to sand-fly bite that causes sores and scarring and ulti- reach around 40% of those affected by the disease. mately leads to social stigma, says BBC. The World Minister Dalil appealed to donors for support and Health Organization (WHO) has released its first re- made assurances that health services and mosquito port on neglected tropical diseases, which happens nets would be provided to those in need. to correspond with the dramatic increase in annual reported leishmaniasis cases in Kabul from 17,000 to The security of humanitarian aid workers in Af- 65,000 in 2009. According to a joint press release by ghanistan remains in the spotlight following the ab- the Government of Afghanistan and WHO, the Af- duction and fatal rescue mission of British aid ghan cities of Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e Sharif worker Linda Norgrove. In light of a 60% increase also reported outbreaks of this disease as these in- in abductions, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office sects are prevalent in post-conflict areas with poor (ANSO) told The Guardian that aid workers should sanitation conditions. Pajhwok Afghan News reports seek permission from the Taliban to work in areas that during a press conference held at the Charah-i- under their control. ANSO reports that the Taliban Qambar internally displaced persons (IDP) camp, are „anticipating authority‟ and have even developed 3 a foreign policy. This advice is not new to many aid The Australian Council for International Develop- agencies according to UK Executive Director of ment (ACFID) is calling for greater transparency of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Marc DuBois. Mr. Australia‟s civilian and military assistance budget of DuBois says that if humanitarian workers want to USD 1.2 billion per annum. ACFID suggests Austra- reach people in need, it is necessary to be in contact lia should formulate a 10-year humanitarian and with all parties to the conflict. MSF also utilizes pri- development plan as well as increase scrutiny of vate donations to fund their work in Afghanistan, as military aid for provincial reconstruction team (PRT) opposed to the use of government funds which projects that currently lack evaluations or assess- could be perceived as a lack of neutrality and ments. (Comments? Click here) thereby put their staff and projects at risk. FOR MORE DISCUSSION CLICK HERE INFRASTRUCTURE Steve Zyck, [email protected] / +1 757-683-4275 Back to top A number of large-scale projects and infrastructure were noted by Pajhwok over the past week: issues were discussed in the Afghan press this past week. Afghanistan‟s Minister of Education, Dr. Panjshir province will have its first orphanage Farooq Wardak, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the once construction is completed on the site. The Ministry of Education (MoE) would be unable to USD 100,000 orphanage is being funded by a meet its target of constructing 1,000 new schools group of Afghans living in Australia and will per year. Lack of funding and widespread insecurity house 100 of the approximately 1,100 orphans reportedly led to the MoE building only 540 new under the age of 17 in the province.