The blood and treasure sacrifices of the past could be wasted without investment in Afghanistan’s civil society when foreign combat forces leave, a world donors’ conference in Tokyo was told Sunday.

Major donors pledged to give Afghanistan $16 billion in development aid over the next four years as they seek to prevent it from sliding back into chaos when foreign troops leave, but demanded reforms to fight corruption.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who is among key global figures gathering Tokyo for talks on a “Transformation Decade”, said progress in security and broad-based development had been made, but remained “fragile”.

“Failure to invest in governance, justice, human rights, employment and social development could negate investment and sacrifices that have been made over the last 10 years,” he told the meeting.

Sunday’s conference is aimed at plugging the gap between what Kabul gets from its barely-functioning economy and what it needs to develop into a stable country.

“Afghanistan’s security cannot only be measured by the absence of war,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the international donors conference.

“It has to be measured by whether people have jobs and economic opportunity, whether they believe their government is serving their needs, whether political reconciliation proceeds and succeeds.”

The Afghan central bank has estimated that at least $6 billion a year in new investment from foreign donors will be needed to foster economic growth over the next decade.
Clinton also stressed the importance of Afghanistan - among the poorest and most corrupt nations in the world - of taking aggressive action to fight graft and promote reforms.

“That must include fighting corruption, improving governance, strengthening the rule of law, increasing access to economic opportunity for all Afghans, especially for women,” she said.

U.S. officials provided no monetary figure for their expected aid, but said the administration would ask Congress to keep assistance levels stable through 2017 compared with the assistance Washington has offered over the past decade.

Representatives from about 80 countries and international aid organizations, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, were gathered in Tokyo to discuss aid for Afghanistan beyond 2014.

International donors provided $35 billion in aid to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2010, according to a summary prepared by Japanese officials.

Per capita economic output increased five-fold over the same period, but Afghanistan remains one of 10 poorest nations.

Major strides have been made in schooling children and improving access to health care, but three-quarters of the 30 million Afghans are illiterate and the average person earns only about $530 a year, according to the World Bank.

The government of Afghanistan has identified several priority areas for economic development, including investment in agriculture and mining, which Western officials see as a possible engine for future growth.

In his opening remarks to the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his country had come a long way, but acknowledged security remained a major problem.

“Afghanistan continues to face grave risks from common threats, not only terrorism and extremism. The peace and reconciliation process is of particular urgency at the present time.”

“(The) responsibility to make Afghanistan peaceful and self-reliant is primarily our own as Afghans. We will remain steadfast in our commitment in this historic partnership.”

Kabul covers only a third of the $6 billion it spends each year, not counting security costs, and has for a long time been heavily dependent on aid.

There are fears that once the U.S. and its allies no longer have to worry about their soldiers dying in Afghanistan after the 2014 pullout, the country could be left to drift into the hands of drug lords and extremists.
U.S. security upgrade
During a stopover in Kabul on Saturday, Clinton upgraded Afghanistan’s security status to a major non-NATO ally, a largely symbolic move, aimed at reinforcing the U.S. message to Afghans that they will not be abandoned as the war winds down.

The new status may help Afghanistan acquire U.S. defense supplies and have greater access to U.S. training as the Afghan army takes more responsibility for the country’s security ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of most NATO combat troops.

The decision, formally taken by U.S. President Barack Obama, keeps a promise that he made on a visit to Afghanistan this year to upgrade Kabul to a special security status given to only a limited number of U.S. partners - including Israel and Japan - which are not members of the NATO alliance.

“We all know that Afghanistan’s security will not be measured only by the absence of war. It will also be measured by the presence of jobs and economic opportunity,” Clinton told the meeting.

However, the new designation is not expected to have any immediate practical effect, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, saying the large presence of NATO forces in the country already confers some similar benefits.










AL ARABIYA