Afghanistan currently receives an annual approximately USD 4 billion in external grant aid (corresponding to USD 142 per head of population). This assistance finances the major part of the investments in Afghanistan's ”National Development Budget” and about 50 per cent of the state's running expenditures.
With its USD 25 million per year, Denmark is number 15 on the list of bilateral donors. In 2004 the largest bilateral donors were the USA (USD 2.3 billion), the UK (USD 216 million), Japan (USD 200 million) and Saudi Arabia (USD 160 million). Comparable countries such as Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands contribute between 40 and 49 million USD per year. The large multilateral donors are the EU Commission (USD 294 million), the World Bank (USD 85 million), the Asian Development Bank (USD 25 million) and the UN organisations.
National ownership of the reconstruction process
Experience from the first years of reconstruction shows that Afghanistan has a high degree of national ownership of the reconstruction process at the general level, including ownership of the country's policies and strategies relating to reconstruction. However, due to the very limited capacity in the public sector it has proved more difficult to ensure ownership of the concrete planning and implementation efforts in the individual sectors and at district and local level.
Coordination of development assistance
The Afghan government has made targeted efforts to further development assistance coordination. The government has gradually succeeded in convincing a growing number of donors to channel assistance through the Afghan development budget and to the national priority programmes. A contributory factor has been that the Afghan government has placed great emphasis on establishing systems for supervision and transparency, which internationally recognised auditing and procurement firms have helped to establish and administer. The World Bank has set up a trust fund (ARTF), where 24 donors, including Denmark, together contribute to financing a considerable part of the state budget. (Cf. also section 6.2).
Consultative Groups (CG) have been established for each of the national priority areas as key mechanisms for coordinating development assistance. Each of the CGs is led by a ministry which receives support from a CG Focal Point (a UN organisation or a bilateral donor), but a lack of ownership and competence in some ministries and reluctance in others because they had to come under the leadership of other ministries has meant that coordination in practice has been rather inadequate. The coordination mechanisms are now under review.
The security situation has been an obstacle to the distribution of development assistance
The unstable security situation has meant that it has been difficult to channel development assistance out to the population in parts of the country. Therefore, the concrete results in the form of improved living conditions for the population are as yet sparse, not least in the southeasterly regions where the security situation has been most critical.
Reconstruction is a long-term process
The process of state formation in Afghanistan began at a low point of departure and the national capacity in the country is limited. Therefore the experience of the first years shows that it is vital that the international donor community is willing to make a long-term engagement in Afghanistan and to provide the necessary economic and technical assistance over a lengthy period.
Experience from the first years' reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan shows that there is a dilemma inherent in the need on the one hand to create the necessary swift results for the local population, and on the other hand to build on government structures in order to promote the long-term sustainability of the efforts. It is obvious that ministries that have accepted a large number of international advisers have been able to push forward the reform processes more quickly. But it is simultaneously the experience that many of the foreign advisers have concentrated their efforts on creating quick results in their own fields rather than transferring the capacity to their host Afghan institutions.
In the coming years there will also be a need for the international donors to help deliver fast results to the population, but at the same time the donor community should increasingly begin to concentrate on capacity transfer to national institutions. In this connection there should be clear strategies both for the training that the technical advisers are to carry out and for phasing it out.
Furthermore, it is the duty of both government and donors to ensure the coordination of the technical assistance and prevent overlapping functions between advisers. Genuine capacity building is also dependent on the stable repatriation of the many well-educated Afghans who fled to other countries.
Danish NGOs were working in Afghanistan long before the present ”post Taliban” development assistance was launched. Their experience with development assistance to the country has constituted very important input in connection with organising the current assistance.
One of the very concrete results of the Danish assistance to reconstruction since 2001 is that a reform of basic education has now been initiated, which includes formulation of new curricula, better teacher training and the development of new school textbooks. In addition, by building 8 new schools and printing 3.6 million new textbooks, Denmark has contributed to enabling many more children to attend school. By supporting the government's ”National Solidarity Programme” (NSP), Denmark has contributed to the rural population in 7000 villages gaining access to the improvement of the local infrastructure (roads, irrigation channels, improvement of sanitary facilities, establishment of alternative earning possibilities etc.). Through the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) Denmark has contributed DKK 150 million to the reconstruction of the public sector, including support to paying the wages of public employees. Denmark has, moreover, supported the drawing up of the new Afghan constitution and supported the preparation and holding of the presidential election. As main donor for the establishment of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Denmark has contributed to improving the monitoring of the human rights situation, including the promotion of women's rights.
Danish humanitarian assistance has, inter alia through food aid, made a contribution to averting new famines and to improving living conditions for returnees and refugees living in countries in the region, internally displaced persons and especially vulnerable groups of women and children in particular. Denmark has also contributed to clearing large mined areas and to building up local capacity in mine clearance. More than 4 million people have received instruction in the dangers involved in mines.