Afghanistan

Chris in Paris cites a Reuters story in his AMERICAblog entry.

Afghanistan aid wasted by the truckload by Chris in Paris · 11/20/2007 03:05:00 AM ET [AMERICAblog]

Too much aid to Afghanistan wasted: Oxfam

By Jon Hemming
Reuters Mon Nov 19, 7:29 PM ET

Too much aid to Afghanistan is wasted -- soaked up in contractors' profits, spent on expensive expatriate consultants or squandered on small-scale, quick-fix projects, a leading British charity said on Tuesday.

Despite more than $15 billion of aid pumped into Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, many Afghans still suffer levels of poverty rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa.

"The development process has to date been too centralized, top-heavy and insufficient," said a report by Oxfam.

By far the biggest donor, the United States approved a further $6.4 billion in Afghan aid this year, but the funds are spent in ways that are "ineffective or inefficient," Oxfam said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allocates close to half its funds to the five largest U.S. contractors in Afghanistan.

"Too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and sub-contractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries and living costs," the report said.

A full-time expatriate consultant can cost up to $500,000 a year, Oxfam said.

More money needed to be channeled through the Afghan government, strengthening its influence and institutions.

Aid also needed to be better coordinated to avoid duplication, it said.

Only 10 percent of technical assistance to Afghanistan is coordinated either with the government or among donors.

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Afghan boys suffer mental scars after suicide bomb

By Tahir Qadiry
Reuters 9:06 am EST Tuesday 20 November 2007

Afghan schoolboy Naqibullah fears closing his eyes.

Each time he tries to go to sleep, he relives a suicide bombing that killed dozens of his classmates.

"I dream about the attack. I see the wounded and dead bodies around me," said Naqibullah, 14, who was wounded in the blast two weeks ago in the northern Afghan town of Baghlan.

The bomber blew himself up as boys from a high school lined up to greet a group of parliamentarians visiting a sugar factory.

Survivors are suffering dangerous psychological scars, doctors say.

Khalilullah Narmgoy, the head of the local hospital, said most of the children, while slowly recovering from their physical wounds, needed long-term psychological care.

"Most of these children are suffering from depression," he said. "I, as a doctor, who was standing 15 meters (yards) from the attack, have been affected by it. I was shocked by it and now dream about dangerous things."

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