International community discusses rebuilding of Afghanistan

The international community was today discussing plans for the recovery and rebuilding of Afghanistan, which the United Nations likens to the five-year reconstruction of war-ravaged Mozambique that cost $6.5bn (£4bn).

The United States and Japan are co-hosting a meeting in Washington with donors and international organisations to start clarifying how the international community should approach the mammoth recovery and reconstruction effort, the UN Development Programme’s administrator said.

This is the first of a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will hopefully lead to a five-year plan and co-ordinated action by the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Commission, major donors and the Afghans themselves, Mark Malloch Brown said.

Unlike many previous reconstruction efforts where the international community has taken charge, Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, have decided that Afghans must run the recovery programme and decide on their priorities.

‘‘It is not the UN’s intention to run Afghanistan for the next few years,’’ said Malloch Brown, who was appointed by Annan on Friday to coordinate UN reconstruction efforts under Brahimi.

‘‘It is to deploy support to an Afghan-led government and administration of the country.’’

The United Nations has 2,200 Afghan nationals on its staff, he noted at a news conference. ‘‘In addition, there are very large numbers of able, skilled Afghans in the refugee camps.’’

Malloch Brown said he thought the rebuilding of Mozambique, following a 1992 peace deal that ended a brutal 16-year civil war, was a better parallel for the rebuilding of Afghanistan than the reconstruction of Bosnia, Kosovo or East Timor.

Mozambique and Afghanistan, both poor countries, were destroyed by many years of conflict, he said. Mozambique’s 17 million population is smaller than Afghanistan’s 26.8 million, and its five-year reconstruction operation cost $6.5bn, he said.

While Malloch Brown said it was ‘‘a little bit premature’’ to estimate the cost of reconstruction for Afghanistan, he said it was important to move quickly ‘‘and to get as close to bankable commitments now’’ as possible.

There is widespread international support for at least a five-year reconstruction program, he said, noting that the working paper for Tuesday’s US-Japan meeting in Washington talks of a five to eight-year plan.

Next week, a long-scheduled meeting of UNDP, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and about 200 Afghans will be held in Islamabad.

Malloch Brown said the November 27-29 session should provide ‘‘a real opportunity for Afghans to declare their priorities’’ for reconstruction efforts.

The initial top priorities should include ‘‘quick impact projects’’ in villages to rebuild roads and restore water and electricity, restoration of the infrastructure of major cities, provision of seeds to farmers, and rebuilding national institutions like the ministries of health, education and justice, he said.

On December 6, the Afghan support group - comprising donor nations that have helped fund Afghan humanitarian and recovery efforts for years - is due to hold its semiannual meeting in Germany that also will focus on reconstruction, he said.

Japan was likely to host a formal donors’ meeting on reconstruction in Tokyo in January, Malloch Brown said.