One Year Later: Aid to Afghanistan
U.S. State Department
With Andrew S. Natsios
Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Monday, Sept. 9, 2002 at 3:30 ET

One year after unprecedented attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, how has the United States and the world changed? Is the war on terrorism still justified? How has the U.S. provided humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Afghanistan?

Since September 11, 319,000 metric tons of food aid has been provided to Afghanistan. During the winter of 2001, USAID provided wool blankets and quilts, shelter kits, plastic sheeting, and winterized tents, clothes, stoves, cooking sets, firewood, coal, lanterns, and water containers. In January of 2002, the United States pledged $297 million in humanitarian and reconstruction aid to help the people of Afghanistan (USAID Web site: Humanitarian and Reconstruction Aid to Afghanistan). For more than 40 years, USAID has been the lead U.S. government agency providing economic and humanitarian assistance to transitioning and developing countries.

Andrew S. Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will be online Monday, Sept. 9 at 3:30 ET, to discuss humanitarian aid to Afghanistan during the war on terrorism.

Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.

Natsios was sworn in May 2001 as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). President Bush has also appointed him Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance and Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.

Previously at USAID, he served as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance from 1989 to 1991 and as assistant administrator for the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance from 1991 to January 1993.

His numerous articles on foreign policy and humanitarian emergencies include "U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997), and "The Great North Korean Famine" (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001). He is also a veteran of the Gulf War.

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washingtonpost.com: Mr. Natsios, thank you for joining us today. What are some of the current relief efforts given to Afghanistan by USAID?

Andrew S. Natsios: There are essentially three levels of assistance.
1. Immediate humanitarian relief for people at risk, meaning assistance to people who are at risk of dying of hunger, who don't have medical needs and no shelter.

2. The second is rehabilitation: making support systems functional such as tents for those who have no shelter, repairing wells damaged during the war for people to get access to water, repairing bridges and roads.

3. The third is longterm reconstruction: rebuilding the country such as the road from Kabul to Kandahar. It means working on the reconstruction of the University of Kabul -- not only the physical infrastructure but the educational system where we help retrain teachers and provide textbooks and school material.

We're doing work in all three categories. We shifted last November away from just doing sole humanitarian relief but started on the rehabilitation and reconstruction program. A great majority we are spending now is rehabilitation and reconstruction and pledged $297 million this fiscal year towards this effort. The fiscal year ends at Sept. 30.

The money was spent on such as:
7000 metric tons of improved wheat seed -- the principle food in Afghanistan.
We've trained several thousand teachers and two thirds are women who have not been in the classroom for 15 to 20 years.
We've renovated several hundred mudbrick schools and printed and distributed 10 million textbooks. The average textbook costs $.50 each.
We've paid 50,000 teachers by food rations to go back and teach. Their salary has been in food aid.

Andrew S. Natsios: Also, 80% of the people in Afghanista are farmers. Most of the country is arid and we spent a lot of money supporting the reconstruction of the irrigation system that was destroyed during the war.

Maryland: How has USAID helped support women in Afghanistan in education and working positions?

Andrew S. Natsios: As you may know, the Taliban basically shut women in their houses for years at a time. The discussion we have had with the new government of Afghanistan is to bring back women into leadership positions in the society. The first way would be to support the education system because most of the teachers were women and now there are 3800 teachers who are retrained and paid by food rations as their salaries. Mrs. Bush has a deep interest in empowering women in the Afghan society and her staff has helped us in a very constructive way.

We have also provided funding to Afghan women NGOs that provide services to people such as healthcare, microcredit loans. There are a very large number of widows since the war. Widows who are unable to support themselves are receiving food assistance from the U.S. and there are micro credit programs which give very small loans to these women to start small businesses. For example, a widow might buy a sewing machine to start selling clothes in the market.

We have also been working on women's health issues as well. The maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. We have been working with the Ministry of Health to get clinics set up across the country to reduce that death rate.

Montreal, Canada: Mr. Natsios,

Could you provide a short list of worthy private aid groups operating in Afghanistan that would appreciate private contributions?

Thanks.

Andrew S. Natsios: On our web site, USAID.gov, you can find a list of private charities and NGOs that are doing work in Afghanistan.

Bethesda, Md.: Have other Arab countries contributed legal and "clean" relief efforts to Afghanistan?

Andrew S. Natsios: Many Arab and Muslim countries have pledged large amounts of money to the reconstruction effort. Much of the money is contributed to international organizations such as UNICEF and the World Bank. There is international oversight over how the money is spent. Most of these countries do not have their own aid agencies.

Boston, Mass.: Do you think Afghan culture lends itself well to our idea of American democracy? The peace-building missions that you speak of seem to be aimed to get Afghanistan on that path - is that true? Have any assessments been done of whether a democracy such as ours is the best form of government for Afghanistan right now?

Andrew S. Natsios: Democracy takes different forms in different societies around the world. Afghanistan actually had the beginnings of a democracy before the Soviet invasion and civil war started. They had an elected parliament so there is some history of democracy, even if it was in an early form in the country. The Afghan people have a very long tradition of democracy at the grassroots level in some ways like the town meeting government in New England. This is done through the tribal system. There is a sense of citizen participation and people voicing their opinion publicly in a group and of consensus building. This will allow us a good base for us to help them develop a longer term democratic institution. But it will take years to do that.

Vienna, Va.: Can U.N. and U.S. envoys freely enter into Afghanistan? Are many Afghans still very poor and rely upon foreign aid?

Andrew S. Natsios: Yes, UN and U.S. diplomats and aid workers can go in and out of the country. I was just there in January for a few days. We have staff working on the reconstruction program right now in Kabul. The Afghans prior to the civil war in 1988 were self sufficient in food and then they exported some food -- particularly fruit, vegetables and nuts. They also had huge animal herds that they also exported. A lot of that was destroyed during the civil war. Our job now is to restore the agricultural system that they had before. People had been suffering under the civil war and the Taliban for 25 years and much of the roads, irrigation system and schools were destroyed during that period.

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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