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Re-Creating Afghanistan: International Aid
High Expectations and Hard Realities
 Listen to Renée Montagne's report on international aid in Afghanistan.
 View a photo gallery about international aid.
An aid truck, burdened with bags of grain, in line on a road in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News
View a photo gallery about international aid.
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Some international programs, such as this road repair work in Kabul, are highly visible ways long term aid money is being spent. But many Afghan officials say the international community is taking too long to start similar projects.
Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News
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Last year, President Bush asked kids across America to each donate $1 to help children in Afghanistan. See how much money that program has raised and how it's being used.
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UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, has spent more than $30 millon on education programs in Afghanistan. See the breakdown.
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Aug. 8, 2002 --
The United Nations, various charities and governments across the world delivered $4.5 billion dollars of aid to Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban regime was driven out of power. Now most of that money seems to have vanished, and what's left is no match for the needs and expectations of those working to rebuild Afghanistan. Morning Edition's Renée Montagne reports on the challenges of international aid in the second of a series called "Re-Creating Afghanistan."
Raising money is only one part of a complicated equation. Once money has been pledged, difficulties remain. There are limitations and conditions placed on how some money can be used. And sometimes, an organization's expectations will delay the arrival of the aid pledged.
There's also the problem of unequal distribution of resources. As U.S. Ambassador David Johnson tells Montagne, Afghanistan is the size of Texas. "There is a vast geography here. There are 26 million people and so as you do these projects there are going to be vast distinctions between what is able to be done for one area and another in a limited amount of time."
For example, the elementary school in Istalif received textbooks from UNICEF, but the high school received few. The principal, Miramback Shamshee, says relief organizations promised things they didn't deliver. "They say we will do whatever we can. And in actual facts they did nothing," he says.
UNICEF says the $4 million it has earmarked for reconstruction can only rebuild 100 of 2,000 damaged schools. "Every penny that has come in for education for UNICEF has been spent," says Edward Carwardine for UNICEF. "It's a huge, huge process." (See sidebar for more information about UNICEF spending.)
According to Montagne, Carwardine sounds defensive because of the rising criticism of the United Nations and relief organizations this summer. While some wish them away, "others seem to hope, for Afghanistan's sake, that the donors are here to stay."
For now, schools stay in tents, roads still have potholes, and wells remain dry. Afghanistan needs much help in its rebuilding process, and it is still looking for aid.
In Depth
A 'Cultural Reawakening' in Afghanistan, a special report by NPR's Jacki Lyden, on Afghanistan after the Taliban.
Kandahar: Built to Last
Listen to a Morning Edition report from NPR's Mike Shuster about the Shomali Plain. Jan. 16, 2002.
Search for more NPR stories on Afghanistan.
Other Resources
• CARE international, a private international humanitarian organization, has a special site describing their work assisting in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
• UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund, created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946.
• USAID
is an independent federal government agency which extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster and trying to escape poverty. It works to support long-term and equitable economic growth and advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives.
• International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan.
• Save the Children is an NGO which works to create opportunities for the world's children to live safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives.
• Islamic Relief is an international relief organization founded in response to the famines in Ethiopia and Sudan in 1984.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report on "Return to Afghanistan".
• An April 2002 U.N. World Food Programme report on rebuilding in the Shomali Plain.
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