AFGHANISTAN ASKS FOR MORE MONEY
More than 60 countries have gathered together in Paris this week, to consider Afghanistan’s request for $50 billion (£25 billion). Its aim is to cease being known as one of the world’s poorest states where 53% of the population are still below the poverty line.
This massive request for an increase in aid has been requested by Afghan Minister Hamid Karzai who is hoping to win the next election and was heralded by his colleagues as the only man who could reunite and rebuild the nation after three decades of war.
However, donors are uncertain whether Mr Karzai’s Government is capable of tackling Afghanistan’s three main problems, the Taleban, the drugs trade and official corruption. “These problems are huge for Afhanistan. Extra aid would be so useful for those communities that live in desperate poverty” says Grace Guinness an aid worker who has worked in Afghan communities for the past three years.
However, when Clare Short was Development Minister she pledged to give most of the UK aid to Africa as a priority when she was Development Minister. They have made it clear that African development was a personal passion of theirs in tune with the public’s demand to see change. John Piper from Dfid approved of the shift. “She said ‘where are the poor? Let’s give more to Africa. This was an excellent move for Africans.’”
However, Ms Guinness does not approve of the disparity in Governments giving to developing countries. “We know that in the past 20 years $300 billion has been spent in Africa alone yet the continent is still rife with weak and collapsed regimes — two million people a year are dying of Aids, three thousand children die every day of malaria and 40 million receive no schooling at all.”
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20th June
-the latest from Afghanistan