From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


CWS - As 2007 ends, progress in Afghanistan proving elusive


From George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>
Date Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:56:11 -0500

As 2007 ends, progress in Afghanistan proving elusive

December 14, 2007

By Chris Herlinger, Church World Service

KABUL, Afghanistan - How, after six years since the fall of the Taliban, is it possible to measure progress in Afghanistan?

It is a frustratingly difficult question to answer, especially for someone who recently made his third visit to the country since 2001 and has seen Afghanistan in three distinct periods.

Let me retrace my steps.

It is hard to convey how hauntingly devastated the capital of Kabul appeared in the summer of 2001 (immediately before Sept. 11), when I and a Danish colleague visited Afghanistan on behalf of the Action by Churches (ACT) International network. We were in Afghanistan to report on a drought that together with oppressive Taliban rule and the effects of years of internecine warfare were crippling the country.

A return visit a year later, in the fall of 2002, saw some hopeful changes -- clearly Kabul was a livelier and more humane place, especially for women and young people. But it was already clear that the country's humanitarian (not to mention political) problems would take years to solve, and that a power vacuum was already being filled with entrenched forces like warlords. That did not augur well for the future.

My recent visit confirmed those earlier fears: In a recent report, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) cited some progress in the areas of economic prosperity, access to health care and education but also warned that "the needs of many remain unfulfilled."

Expressing the hopes of many, one Afghan man, Faqirullah Hamidi, a father of eight who lives on the outskirts of Kabul, said: "We want a secure country, we want peace in this country, we want development in this country."

The UN report said Afghanistan's "human development index," which measures such benchmarks as health and education, was the lowest among its neighbors, including Pakistan. That placed the country 174th out of 178 countries. Only four countries had lower indicators than Afghanistan, all in sub-Saharan Africa.

My recent trip introduced new worries. As the year 2007 ends in Afghanistan, the level of day-to-day safety and security had dropped markedly, making travel outside the perimeters of Kabul risky. Security, or perhaps more to the point, insecurity, has become a mantra among a population that in recent months had had difficulty inuring itself to suicide bomb blasts, kidnappings and robberies.

A new shopping center in Kabul

A new shopping center in Kabul, an example of new prosperity for a small number of Kabul residents. Photo: Chris Herlinger

But perhaps most striking was a clear and growing gap between a very small group of "haves," and the overwhelming population of "have-nots." The UN report was spot on: yes, there are signs of progress in Afghanistan; certainly striking evidence of change, including amenities that would have been impossible to conceive of in 2001 or even 2002 -- including shopping centers with luxury goods and cash machines that, tellingly, dispense both Afghan and American currencies.

At the same time, large sections -- I was told about half -- of Kabul were still astonishingly, six years after the fall of Taliban, without electricity.

Moreover, a city with a population of anywhere from 3 to more than 4 million is growing with returnees and those displaced or frustrated by continuing rural poverty -- and most of them struggle to find places to live. Their living standards are in marked contrast to those who live in opulent mansions being built in once war-ravaged neighborhoods. (Many are reportedly drug lords and warlords.)

The poor, understandably frustrated by tight job prospects -- one woman told me she and others hate Afghanistan and want to leave because there are no jobs here -- are asking why they have not seen the benefits of the billions in relief and reconstruction that have flowed into Afghanistan since the end of 2001.

Some say such frustration in part explains why the Taliban have experienced something of a resurgence, particularly in poor rural areas. And that, the argument goes, explains the possible link between poverty and insecurity.

"Poverty is the source of the instability," said Mohammad Zakir Stanikzai, a senior CWS program officer whose work takes him to many of Afghanistan's rural areas. "People feel like, Why not join the Taliban? We have nothing to lose."

Unfortunately, by those standards progress in Afghanistan since 2001 has proven frustratingly elusive.

Read more on Afghanistan and see photos from Chris's trip.

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net


Browse month . . . Browse month (sort by Source) . . . Advanced Search & Browse . . . WFN Home