Contacts: In Kabul: Abdul Raouf Zia (93) 702 80800 Azia@worldbank.org In Washington: Erik Nora (202) 458 4735 enora@worldbank.org Kabul, 24 July 2008 ─ The World Bank is committed to supporting Afghanistan’s efforts to overcome poverty, promote economic and social development, and strengthen governance and anti-corruption measures amid a challenging security situation, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said here today. Concluding a three-day visit to Afghanistan Mr. Zoellick not only met with the country’s leadership but also village leaders whose development efforts in the poorest rural areas are demonstrating the power of local governance and community entrepreneurship. “Creating a better tomorrow for the Afghan people will take a real coming together to address the challenges of building institutions, fighting corruption and improving service delivery to citizens,” said Mr. Zoellick. “We in the international community can help, but Afghan leadership is critical to getting ahead of these fundamental issues holding development back.” Mr. Zoellick noted that much had been achieved in Afghanistan in a relatively short time and there was much to be learned from these successes. On Wednesday he visited rural projects in Bamiyan, one of the poorest provinces in the country. He met villagers who had used their funds for a micro-hydro project to generate electricity, others who decided to pool their funding to build a school. “What I heard from rural people was really an extraordinary demonstration of community governance in action,” said Mr. Zoellick. “Communities, men and women, have come together in collective – and effective – decisions about their development. They are a real lesson to the big governance challenges facing Afghanistan today, and a real hope.” Microfinance borrowers told the World Bank Group president how they used their credit to create businesses. Among them was a woman who opened a tailor shop and employed five other women; another had started a mobile-phone business. “This shows the people of Afghanistan are entrepreneurial and can achieve amazing things,” Mr. Zoellick said. Access to microfinance services has reached 450,000 Afghans since its inception in 2003. Mr. Zoellick said he appreciated the government’s recent drafting of an anti-corruption law, which envisages an anti-corruption body reporting directly to the president, a special prosecutor and a special court. He said there was a “strong need for concrete action against corruption and for ensuring that reforms reach all areas of the public sector, otherwise government’s credibility and legitimacy might be at risk.” Afghanistan has slipped sharply in Transparency International’s corruption index from 117 out of 159 countries surveyed in 2005, to 172 out of 180 countries in 2007. Mr. Zoellick also announced support to Afghanistan from the Bank’s new Global Food Crisis Response Program, which will give US$8 million for the rehabilitation of around 500 small, traditional irrigation schemes critical to the recovery of the country’s agriculture. The additional funding for community irrigation would bring to nearly 6,000 the number of small irrigation schemes supported by the Bank since 2002. In addition the Bank has also funded nearly US$100 million for the rehabilitation of medium-size irrigation systems. But Afghanistan will still need significant support in the current food crisis. Mr. Zoellick said the Bank’s support was aimed at the medium-term investments needed to increase food security over time but that the institution was working closely with Afghanistan’s other development partners and relief agencies to address immediate shortfalls. In Kabul, Mr. Zoellick met President Hamid Karzai, cabinet ministers, representatives of the donor community and private sector. The World Bank Group president reaffirmed his institution’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan and support for its new five-year plan to reduce poverty and promote economic and social development, as discussed at the donor conference on the country’s future in Paris last month. Since the resumption of operations in Afghanistan in April 2002, the World Bank Group has financed 41 projects, committing around US$1.69 billion of which US$1.25 billion is grant and US$436.4 credit (interest-free loan). The World Bank funded projects mostly support rural livelihoods, rebuilding infrastructure, education and basic health services. The World Bank also manages the US$2.5 billion Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Since 2002, the IFC, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, has provided US$50 million of equity financing while its Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency has guaranteed US$80 million of investment. For more information on the Bank’s work in Afghanistan, please visit http://www.worldbank.org.af/ |
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