NEW DELHI (AlertNet) -? Afghans say foreign donors must commit and deliver "more effective aid" if the country is to pull itself out of poverty and end more than three decades of violence, Oxfam International said in a report on Wednesday.
"The Cost of War" - a survey based on interviews with over 700 people across 14 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces - found that most Afghans felt poverty, unemployment and corruption were the main drivers of conflict in the country since 1978.
However, many also felt that while much aid had been promised to the Afghan people, little had been delivered - creating frustration and disillusionment and ultimately undermining stability, said the report.
"Ordinary Afghans want peace and an end to conflict, and they want to see the root causes of fighting dealt with," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive.
"Poverty is driving the conflict. One man told us: 'If people are jobless they are capable of anything.' The international community must bear his words in mind and provide more effective aid to help kick-start the Afghan economy," Stocking added in a press release.
Since U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, international donors have poured more than $20 billion in development and humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged nation.
But the report, which backs up criticism from aid agencies and observers, said Afghans felt the funds were insufficient and wasted and there needed to be more accountability to ensure aid got to where it was needed.
BLOODY HISTORY
Afghanistan is one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world - nearly half the population lives below the poverty line, more than half of the children are chronically malnourished and unemployment is estimated at 40 percent.
While more than a quarter of a million Afghans remain displaced inside the country, the violence over the past 30 years has forced three million refugees to flee to Pakistan and Iran.
Since 1978, successive groups have vied for control over the country, first with the invasion of Soviet forces, followed by a period of civil unrest during which various Mujahideen factions waged war against each other for power.
The Taliban emerged from the chaos of civil war in 1996 and imposed its own hard-line brand of Islam for five years until late 2001 when U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the regime.
Many Afghans thought the violence would then end and their lives would improve, but in 2006, the security situation sharply deteriorated.
Roadside and other bomb attacks nearly doubled in 2006 from the previous year, suicide attacks increased six-fold and there were more than a thousand civilian casualties.
Violence is now at its highest levels since 2001.
WHERE IS THE AID?
The report - which was conducted with the support of eight Afghan aid agencies - said some progress in terms of development had been made, particularly in the education and health sectors, but challenges remained.
One in five children dies before the age of five, one in eight women dies from pregnancy-related complications and two million children - two-thirds of whom are girls - do not attend primary school.
"Though international aid to Afghanistan has unquestionably had a significant impact on the lives of Afghans, not only has the volume been insufficient but much of it has been delivered in ways that are ineffective and wasteful," said the report.
It said nearly 40 percent of all aid since 2001 has returned to donor countries in the form of profits or remunerations, resulting in a large share of funds failing to reach the poorest Afghans.
The report said many donors' strategies on "quick impact projects" and the use of expensive consultants needed to be re-evaluated and redirected to meet Afghan needs, particularly the creation of income generation opportunities to address poverty and unemployment.
The security situation has also played a major role in not getting aid to the poorest as nearly half of the country is considered too dangerous for the U.N. and other international humanitarian agencies to access.
ACCOUNTABILITY ON GRAFT
Corruption, however, is seen by many in the humanitarian community as one of the main causes of ineffective aid in Afghanistan.
According to the global watchdog Transparency International, public sector corruption has worsened over the past two years and graft is more rampant in Afghanistan than any other country apart from Somalia.
President Hamid Karzai's government, which won last monthÂ?s elections despite fraud allegations, is under increasing pressure from the West to tackle corruption and has announced plans to set up an anti-graft unit.
The report called on the international humanitarian community and the Afghan government to improve transparency and the coordination of aid.
There should be efforts to collate information on aid flows, undertake regular monitoring and evaluation of all donors, and publicly report on the delivery of aid, it said.
The report also recommended that while donors should be held to account for where their funds are going, they must also pressure the Afghan government to be more accountable.
"Aid must be premised on the ability and willingness of the government to demonstrate a genuine commitment to these goals, and there should be consequences if they fail to do so," said the report.
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