GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL - 01 | 2009

COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA
Afghan Expectations Belied
By Ramesh Jaura, InDepthNews (IDN)
The Afghan peoples' expectations would appear to have been belied to a large extent despite seven years
of international engagement in the country. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
(AIHRC) paints rather a gloomy picture of this beleaguered country in a new report.
"Given the fact that the majority of Afghan population lives in rural areas, agriculture should be the
backbone of Afghanistan’s development strategy. It received, however, only about 3 percent of total development
money invested in the country since 2001," says the report.
This is some half-a-billion dollars compared to some 15 billion dollars in total aid distributed to Afghanistan.
The rights watchdog points out that to improve standard of living of the rural population, the government
needs to focus on agriculture as matter of priority.
"To ensure that the rural population can produce at least the food it consumes throughout the year,
there is a need to improve irrigation system and provide farmers with access to both credit and high quality
foundation seeds. The government needs to rehabilitate irrigation systems, rebuilding canals and karez
as well as reducing water loss by improving the quality of canals and constructing irrigation dams."
Agriculture needs more money
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, Afghanistan utilises only 30 percent
of available water resources. Rehabilitated irrigation will help to increase food production, says the AIHRC
report. A case in point is that crop from irrigated land produces at least twice the crop from rain-fed land.
For example, one hectare of irrigated land in Helmand or Herat in 2008 produced about seven to eight
tons of wheat, whereas rain-fed land produced about 1.5 tons. Since the FAO program started operating in
Afghanistan, roughly 500,000 hectares of irrigated land has been rehabilitated and among this, 100,000
hectares of new land.
Afghanistan has another 500,000 hectares of land that has yet to be rehabilitated, say the report.
In total, roughly 75 million dollars were spent on irrigation reconstruction in Afghanistan and another 28
million dollar investment is planned. This, however, represents only a fraction of the resources that is
spent on other development efforts, the report says. "There is also a need to expand other opportunities
for farmers. Access to credit is limited; it is easier to find informal credit to produce opium than to grow
wheat."
This report measures progress of the Afghan government towards securing the social and economic rights
of its people, covering the period between January 2007 and March 2008. The Commission released two
previous reports on Economic and Social Rights in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, respectively. These reports
are available at the AIHRC’s web page, at www.aihrc.org.af.
Establishing a stable state with a functional bureaucracy, accessible and affordable basic services, rule
of law and gender equality requires long-term investments and careful planning.
To ensure economic and social rights, Afghanistan’s legal and policy framework is drawn from two main
legal documents, the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan and the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), coupled with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Afghanistan, and
the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).
Under these legal and policy provisions, the government of Afghanistan has a responsibility to its citizens
in protecting and promoting labour rights, providing social security, creating an environment to achieve an
adequate standard of living, reintegrating returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), protecting
family life, and providing education and health services to the Afghan citizens.
Fulfilling obligations to guarantee Afghan citizens an adequate standard of living and protect their economic
and social rights is proving to be a difficult task, says the report. Despite the facts that 2007 saw
some economic growth and hosted one of the best crop productions in years, the situation of average Afghans
still remains precarious.
Rising food prices in the world and the onset of the severe drought of 2008 created unprecedented numbers
of foodinsecure people. The security situation has continuously deteriorated throughout the year. And
the global economic crisis has yet to take its toll on the development of Afghanistan. These are only some
of the challenges that the government has to address. Regardless, these cannot be made to excuse the
current slow progress in securing social and economic rights for the Afghan people.
Vulnerable Populations
The report finds that vulnerable populations in Afghanistan continue to be excluded from development
programs. Though, human rights based development is one of the important prerequisites to exercising social
and economic rights. It is a fundamental component of a dignified life ensuring access to basic resources,
education, health services, food, housing, employment, and the fair distribution of income.
However, vulnerable populations in Afghanistan are excluded on three levels: (i) Donor-driven priorities
strip Afghan citizens from their right to shape their lives. (ii) The policy-makers in Afghanistan fail to hear
the needs of the people despite extensive consultations and remain largely tuned in to the desires of the
international funding environment. (iii) Poor Afghans are excluded at the community level where poverty
creates pockets of chronically underserved populations.
Some extracts from the report follow.
18 KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL | JANUAR 2009