Noticias.info
Three
years after the United States drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan and
vowed to rebuild, the war-shattered country ranked 173rd of 178
countries in the United Nations 2004 Human Development Index, according
to a new report from the United Nations, The New York Times (02/22)
reports. It was trailed only by a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa:
Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.
The survey, "National Human Development Report: Security With a Human
Face," released Monday in Kabul, is the first comprehensive look at the
state of development in Afghanistan in 30 years. In addition to ranking
Afghanistan in the development index for the first time, the report
warned that Afghanistan could revert to anarchy if its dire poverty,
poor health and insecurity were not improved. "The fragile nation could
easily tumble back into chaos," concluded the authors of the study, led
by Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, the report's editor in chief. "The basic
human needs and genuine grievances of the people, lack of jobs, health,
education, income, dignity and opportunities for participation must be
met."
Despite the problems, Afghanistan has shown remarkable progress in the
three years since the United States-led war in 2001, the report said.
More than 54 percent of school-age children are enrolled, including
four million high school students. The economy is making great strides,
with growth of 16 percent in non-drug gross domestic product in 2003
and predicted growth of 10 to 12 percent annually for the next decade.
While there has been rapid progress, said Zphirin Diabr, associate
administrator of the United Nations Development Program, the country
has a long way to go just to get back to where it was 20 years ago.
Average life expectancy for Afghanistan's 28.5 million people is 44.5
years, at least 20 years lower than that of neighboring countries, the
report said. One of two Afghans can be classified as poor, and 20.4
percent of the rural population does not have enough to eat, getting
less than the benchmark of 2,070 calories a day. More than half of the
population has suffered from the effects of a prolonged drought, the
report said.
Most glaring are the inequalities that affect women and children, still
some of the worst social indicators in the world today, said Alistair
McKechnie, Country Director of the World Bank, which financed the
report along with the Canadians and the United Nations. One woman dies
from pregnancy-related causes about every 30 minutes, and maternal
mortality rates are 60 times higher than in industrialized countries,
the report said. One-fifth of the children die before the age of 5, 80
percent of them from preventable diseases, one of the worst rates in
the world. Only 25 percent of the population has access to clean
drinking water, and one in eight children die from lack of clean water.
Afghanistan now has the worst education system in the world, the report
concluded, and one of the lowest adult literacy rates, 28.7 percent.
Annual per capita income was $190 and the unemployment rate 25 percent,
said Hanif Atmar, the minister of rehabilitation and rural development.
The success of Afghanistan depends on improved security, political
reform, broad-based economic development and gradual elimination of
poppy production, McKechnie said, adding that failure in any of those
areas would imperil the reconstruction of the state country and the
living conditions of the people. The report and its donors emphasized
that attention must be paid to helping the nation's poorest people if
Afghanistan is to be lifted out of its dire poverty and persistent
instability.
Agence France Presse (02/21) also reports that although Afghanistan's
legal economy has grown by 25 to 30 percent since the fall of the
Taliban, there has been little trickle-down to the poorest echelons of
society, according to the UN. The report found that the poorest 30
percent of the population receive only nine percent of the national
income, while the upper third receive 55 percent. "Our team found the
overwhelming majority of people hold a sense of pessimism and fear that
reconstruction is bypassing them," said Daud Saba, one the authors of
the report.
The Financial Times (02/22) adds that the report praised Afghanistan's
economic recovery, predicting the economy would grow about 10 per cent
a year for the next decade after a two-year boom. But it warned of a
growing concentration of wealth in the hands of powerful cadres with
links to private militia, and of a sense among many Afghans that the
reconstruction effort was passing them by.
Economic and social development represented a more powerful and
cost-effective tool against religious extremism than did military
intervention, the report argued, citing the US military's Afghan
operation, which costs about $1 billion a month.
Voice of America (02/21) also reports that associate administrator of
the UN development program, Zephirin Diabre, says the study will help
Afghans to identify and seek solutions of problems their country has
been facing in the wake of decades of hostilities. He says that
international supporters of the Afghan government need to ensure
security of Afghans and take a broad and long-term view of the
country's development.
Hanif Atmar, the minister of rehabilitation and rural development says
that his country has been on the path of recovery from the effects of
war and conflict. But he says Afghanistan still needs full attention of
the world community. "This report is a timely reminder of a key role
that Afghanistan will and must play in global discussions about
development as a nation that has achieved much in recent years but
requires intense supports if the gains are to be consolidated," he
said. notas_de_prensa_archivo
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