Kai Eide, the Special Representative of the United Nations to Afghanistan, did not mix words. Addressing the Committee of Development at the European Parliament in Brussels this evening, Mr. Eide began to vent some frustration against NGOs and INGOs.
He was vague and did not single out any organisation in particular. Instead he said that some NGOs and INGOs are too bent on working on their own particular projects. The resulting development schemes are fragmented and do not necessarily take into account overall policy initiatives. He also said that some INGOs are not be entirely straightforward about development programs that he claims have been successful.
“INGOs don’t want to accept that [in some areas] infrastructure is in place. It’s madness that they would say otherwise,” he said.
Mr. Eide, who has held his post since March of last year, has had the unnameable task of coordinating the Presidential election which, as we all now know, was mired in scandals and fraud. “There was still a 40% turnout and given the stat of war that is in Afghanistan, that’s not all that bad,” he said.
He then recalled that the Presidential election fiasco needs to be viewed in an Afghan context where anywhere between 80 to 85% of the population are illiterate. “Many had never even seen a pen,” he said. All the while, the fateful August 20th day had also recorded the highest level of security incidences against the Afghan people since the start of the war almost eight years ago.
“We knew beforehand that there would be significant fraud,” said Mr. Eide who was the first person to inform President Karzai that he had not won the first round.
The UN special representative is calling for a more cohesive overall and coordinated national strategy that also takes into account the North and West of Afghanistan. According to Mr. Eide, development initiatives focus almost entirely in the South where most of the heavy fighting is occurring. Plans made in Paris and Vienna to launch agricultural programs have yet to be implemented.
Mr. Eide announced he will put together a spring conference that he calls a Sovereignty Agenda. This agenda will focus on security, institution building, economic development, peace and reconciliation, and regional development relations.
In the meantime, he is calling on the Karzai government to tackle the culture of impunity, corruption, and begin delivering state services. “These three areas are key and need focus,” he said.
