Afghanistan's development strategy on track

11 Aug 2009

Afghanistan's development strategy on track

11 August 2009 - The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Kai Eide, today said that progress was being made toward meeting the goals as outlined under the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

 

Mr Eide was speaking in Kabul at a day-long conference, organised to update the international community and government officials on the achievements by the Government of Afghanistan in implementing the ANDS.

 

Addressing government officials, including various ministers, and ambassadors, the Special Envoy emphasized the importance of sustainable economic growth for the country and the need to focus on infrastructure, agriculture, and massive institutional building.

 

Mr Eide also outlined the significance of human resource development. "Afghanistan has tremendous potential human resources. We have to continue investing in the education sector in strategic ways that will give the country competent people that can utilise their resources," he said.

 

Earlier, Dr Omar Zakhilwal, Minister of Finance and head of the Government Coordination Committee (GCC), apprised participants about key achievements over the first year, since the approval of this strategy.

 

Besides a substantial increase in direct revenue, progress was made in sectors such as rule of law, health and urban development.

 

"Basic health services now reach 85 per cent of the population, while 291 health sub-centres were established. In education, 6.2 million students were enrolled in schools this year, up from 5.7 million in 2007-2008," he said.

 

Dr Zakhilwal also spoke about developments in security and the country's energy capacity. "The Afghan National Army has increased to over 86,000...the Afghan National Police's strength is now 74,000. As far as the energy sector is concerned, the government has increased total electricity supply to 630 MW from 485 MW in 2007," he said.

 

However, although some benchmarks have been met since the launch of this initiative, participants recognised some of the problems with the current set-up of the ANDS.

 

According to Mark Ward, Special Advisor to the SRSG on development, a lack of focus has made it difficult to achieve some of the key intentions of the strategy. "It has made it harder to hold donors to account for meeting Government priorities, which in effect enables the donors to do what they want, where they want, when they want to."

 

ANDS, which was endorsed by donors at the Paris Conference in June 2008, represents the combined efforts of the Afghan people and the Government, supported by the international community, to address the major challenges that face the country.

 

By Aditya Mehta, UNAMA

 

Website: Afghanistan National Development Strategy