Rethinking German Aid to Afghanistan

Though details on the upcoming Afghanistan conference near Bonn on December 2 are still being drawn up, one thing is clear.

This time the meeting will not be a long drawn-out affair like the one a year ago, which saw delegates from various Afghan factions and ethnic groups take nine long days to hammer out a plan for an interim administration.

With an elected - if somewhat shaky - government in place, the Taliban long ousted and repair work underway in earnest, Afghanistan has come a long way from the devastated country that it was before US forces toppled the fundamentalist Taliban regime a year ago.

Fischer's idea for Petersberg follow-up

A spokeswoman from the German Foreign Ministry told DW-WORLD that the one-day conference scheduled for December 2 was initiated at the personal behest of the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. The foreign minister is set to leave for Kabul next week to lay the groundwork and visit German troops stationed there.

Titled, "Rebuilding Afghanistan: Peace and Stability", the conference will "take stock of Germany’s role so far in repairing Afghanistan and discuss the next stage of rebuilding the country," said the spokeswoman.

Though the situation in Afghanistan is anything but peaceful and stable, the conference will not focus strictly on security and military issues, but rather "throw a political spotlight on the country," the spokeswoman said.

Afghan President Hamid Karsai and members of his cabinet as well as representatives from the United Nations and neighboring countries who have played a role in rebuilding Afghanistan are expected to participate in the conference, which will again take place in the Petersberg Hotel atop a hill overlooking the Rhine river.

Glowing German track record in Afghanistan

Last week, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek Zeul presented a glowing report on German aid to Afghanistan in parliament.

From the 360 million euro for four years pledged by Germany at the international donor conference in Tokyo last year, the country has already invested 80 million euro in concrete projects in 2002. The money has been directed towards renovating and equipping damaged hospitals and schools, setting up vocational training programs for women and helping the country develop a trained police force.

Berlin has also freed up a further 46 million euro making the total amount of German aid to Afghanistan in 2002 a whopping 126 million euro.

Aid not flowing to the right projects?

But while the German government pats itself on the back for its excellent track record in Afghanistan, critics point out that the generous aid is often diverted to a clutch of diverse projects, that aren’t necessarily the pressing need of the day.

"This whole business of German aid in Afghanistan is exaggerated in Germany. The Germans have done their homework in Tokyo well, but it’s actually rather symbolic, like Germany wanting to take over the ISAF (UN International Peacekeeping force in Kabul)," said Bernt Glatzer, chairman of the Afghan Research Group, an informal association of scholars, writers, diplomats and aid and development workers who have worked or still work in or on Afghanistan. "In terms of quantity, it isn’t very much."

Glatzer, just back from Afghanistan, says what’s missing when it comes to German aid to Afghanistan is "a concept."

"The projects need to make more sense," he said.

As an example he cites the need to invest more in "providing drinking water, in the energy sector and in a market economy, to promote small businesses and to encourage vocational training programs."

Disarming the need of the day

Though he concedes that Germany has done much to reopen shattered schools, Glatzer says young men, rather than children, need serious attention. Money should go to programs that keep youths off the streets and into jobs, especially those in the ages between 16 and 26, who are susceptible to take up arms for warlords to earn a living.

"Though it’s not officially said, disarming of armed rebels is the most important priority. All projects whether they’re in the civil area or vocational training should be set up keeping in mind the problem of weapons in the country," he said.

Afghanistan is skating on thin ice with President Karsai caught between trying to placate his government members from various ethnic groups and an increasingly discontented population who don’t regard the government as a "legitimate" one. The danger of guns and armed conflict lurking below the surface adds to the political tension in the country.

Petersberg important for symbolic reasons

Though he doesn’t expect much from the upcoming Petersberg conference, Glatzer believes that the conference will be "useful" in keeping Afghanistan in the public memory and allowing President Karsai to demonstrate that his country has managed to survive a year without slipping back into civil war.

That would also justify Karsai making another appeal for international aid.