(updates with response from UK minister, UN)
LONDON (AlertNet) - Members of Afghan civil society demanded on Tuesday a bigger say in the country's future, saying aid and development programmes had become too enmeshed with international political and military goals.
Projects must be based on the needs of the Afghan people, as assessed by Afghans themselves, and Afghans must be given a bigger stake in their delivery, representatives of local organisations said.
"Let's put the people at the centre of the whole of the Afghan agenda. If people are at the centre, the whole of the agenda will change," said Abdul Salam Rahimy, the director of SABA media, an independent Afghan media group with a broad presence in the country.
Rahimy was speaking at a conference of Afghan civil society, politicians and local and foreign development experts on the country's future, ahead of an intergovernmental conference to be held in London on Thursday.
The British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group, hosting the gathering, hopes recommendations made at Tuesday's conference will help sway policy-making at the meeting later this week, to be attended by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and foreign ministers from some 43 countries.
Donors have channelled too much aid into areas blighted by fighting via military-run short-term projects designed to win Afghans' "hearts and minds" and prevent them from supporting Taliban insurgents, speakers at the conference said.
"Donors should design projects based on the needs of the Afghan people, communities should be part of the decision-making process and assessments (of needs) should be done by the people themselves," said Arezo Qanih, programme officer of the Educational Training Centre for Poor Women and Girls of Afghanistan.
In response, UK Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell defended the delivery of aid by the British government, saying a military presence was vital.
"The military component is the absolute precondition," he told the conference. "You have to provide a security response."
However, Ambassador Kai Eide, United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, agreed the aid strategy was driven by short-term military aims and should be rethought.
"There are serious problems in coordinating aid. The military have to shift to something more long-term ... donors have to change the way they operate," he said.
Despite huge amounts of international aid over past years, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
Average life expectancy is 43.6 years, 1.2 million children are involved in child labour and unemployment is almost 50 percent, said Mervyn Lee, executive director of Mercy Corps UK.
CHALLENGES
While speakers at the conference noted recent improvements in Afghanistan - such as democratic elections, better schools and infrastructure - they said huge obstacles remained.
Some aid programmes had not worked because goals were not grounded in reality nor based on the needs on the ground, said Sarah Parkinson of Afghan-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
"Afghan livelihoods have not really improved since 2001 and in many cases they have worsened," she said.
Corruption within the Afghan government was one of the biggest challenges to effective delivery of aid and development, speakers said.
Warlords within government ministries and "gatekeepers" - chiefs or tribal leaders in parts of the country who siphon off aid for their own use - were all obstacles to effective development, they added.
Other problems include a flawed justice system, inequality, poverty and the discrimination of women, speakers added. They agreed that the empowerment of Afghan women was key to peace, stability and development in the country.
Women that are educated can go on to educate their whole village, said Shinkai Karokhail, a member of the Afghan parliament and co-founder of the Afghan WomenÂ?s Education Centre. An increased female presence in the higher echelons of Afghan society and government would bring more sustainable and balanced development, positive competition and less corruption, she added.
Delegates also agreed that Afghanistan needed more investment and less aid, to break the cycle of dependency.
Security was one of the biggest challenges to Afghan's development and was essential for civil society to be able to direct change, speakers agreed.
Afghans were afraid that the international community would abandon them, Rahimy said. They wanted foreign troops to stay but act in a support role, not search their homes and not clog up their roads with slow-moving military vehicles, he added.
But Rahimy said Afghans did not want foreign troops to die for them. Afghans were prepared to put their own lives on the line, but they needed support and training from the foreign military.
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