Afghanistan is a poor, war-riddled country with no infrastructure and a need for rebuilding - according to Ghulamrasool Folladwand, Afghan student of economics who illustrated the international non-military contribution of the international community in his country.

After the engagement of the international community in September 2001 for the creation of a democratic Afghanistan, the lack of a specific strategy for developing the country until the end of the 2005 affected negatively the efficiency of the most of the aids.

Despite 5 international conferences, the first attempt to create a wider approach was presented only at the Paris conference in 2008, where the Afghan authorities launched the National Development Strategy.

- We realize and appreciate the international soldiers, your sons getting killed and also the mistake committed, that we condemn - commented the young scholar.

He stressed the urgency of finding solutions that are not only military based even if the majority of the international aids are planned for implementing security and law enforcement with a small percentage dedicated to the creation of a universal education system in a country where illiteracy has the dimension of a social pathology.

The country is in a sort of deadlock because without fulfilling firstly the security option, further investments in other sector seem hard to increase. Folladwand also stressed some causes that undermine the efficiency of the aids:

- Lack of vision and of coordination between donors, administrative corruption and the NGOs sector eat a valuable part of the money - he says without forgetting to mention some success, such as the achieved constitution, the presidential election and the building of schools for primary education.

Even if the country still faces the Taliban insurgency draining a lot of resources in term of warfare, the young Afghans at the forum consider the necessity to develop a kind of welfare always together with a practical approach that doesn’t see the two options in contradiction, but rather as side of the same coin.

- There is no development without security - admits Parvaneh Ghorbani, an Afghan who grew up in Denmark.

- We need a strategy more oriented towards the EU way of work that use more civilians experts for implementing the non-military operation in Afghanistan - adds Parvaneh, summarizing the difficult task to sustain security and to develop welfare dealing with an overall troublesome lack of resources.

by Marco Riciputi

Link:

www.ands.gov.af/ands/Provincial_Consultations/details.asp