AFGHANISTAN

UN Assistance Opens Door to New Afghan Future

The fall of the Taliban regime in November 2001 opened the door to UN-assisted political processes including the Bonn Agreement, the establishment of an Interim Authority and a Transitional Administration. The integrated UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, established in March 2002, provided critical support to these political processes and undertook humanitarian, relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts in partnership with the Afghan Administration and in coordination with donors as well as other actors.

Afghan administration takes reins

Photo: Eskinder Debebe, February 2002

Residents of Maslakh Camp for internally displaced Afghans

In late November and early December 2001, the United Nations arranged a meeting of Afghan representatives in Bonn, at which the participants agreed to interim arrangements for governing the country and for the deployment of a multinational security force to Kabul. On 22 December, an Interim Administration led by President Hamid Karzai, five Vice-Chairpersons and a Cabinet of 24 took the reins of a fractured nation with few resources and no real national army or security force.

An international conference held in Tokyo on 21-22 January 2002 to address Afghanistan's reconstruction needs brought pledges of $US 5 billion over a six-year period. Three days later, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Kabul to meet with Afghanistan's new Interim Administration. The composition of a Special Independent Commission for the Convening of an Emergency Loya Jirga (Grand Council of leaders representing all districts and ethnic groups) was announced during that visit.

Bonn Agreement charts course

The UN-brokered Bonn Agreement set a path for Afghans to move towards peace, reconciliation, reconstruction and development with the United Nations close at hand to provide support. On 28 March, the UN Security Council established the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) under the continuing leadership of the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi. Working closely with the Interim Authority and then the Transitional Administration, UNAMA pursued an integrated approach to peace and sustainable development by supporting political, governance and peacebuilding processes, while simultaneously responding to urgent humanitarian and recovery needs. UNAMA has overall responsibility for UN activities in the country.

Loya Jirga convenes

UN Photo Eskinder Debebe, February 2002

Internally displaced residents of the Maslakh Camp near the western Afghan city Herat, prepare a meal

For seven weeks (16 April to 6 June) teams organized by the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga, accompanied by some 50 UNAMA staff and international monitors, crisscrossed the country generating public awareness and support for the selection of some 1,500 delegates from almost 400 districts for the Loya Jirga. UNAMA also organized an induction course with the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) for the 200 women selected as delegates for the Loya Jirga process and was on hand in Kabul (12-19 June) to help with the voting procedures during the Loya Jirga.

Following the election of Hamid Karzai as President of the new Transitional Administration, Lakhdar Brahimi noted that for the first time in 23 years the Afghan people had been able to vote for their leader.

An Afghan-led process

All UN agencies, funds and programmes moved the centre of their activities back into Kabul soon after the installation of the Interim Authority. Of particular significance is the fact that the United Nations presence in Afghanistan is based on the premise of supporting an Afghan-led process in which priorities are identified and defined by the Transitional Administration.

There are currently some 16 UN agencies in the country working with their government counterparts and with national and international NGO partners. The achievements of these organizations have been remarkable despite continued insecurity and, in several cases, direct assaults on their facilities and personnel. Among their contributions and achievements during the past year are:

• the provision of food, shelter, medical and other support. By the end of August, assistance had been provided for about 1.6 million returning refugees and 400,000 internally displaced persons who went back to their places of origin;
• distribution of emergency food supplies;
• national immunization days to vaccinate millions of children against polio and measles;
• a back-to-school campaign for primary education. Special attention to the needs of girls has helped increase their enrolment by 90 per cent since March, to 30 per cent of the total;
• assistance with labour-intensive public works projects including school and hospital repairs and water and sanitation projects; and payment of salaries for teachers and civil servants;
• the provision of substantial support for the establishment on 6 June of an Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission comprising male and female experts from all major ethnic groups;
• active support to the Afghan Judicial Commission to rebuild the domestic justice system in accordance with Islamic principles, international standards, the rule of law and Afghan legal traditions;
• establishment of the Law and Order Trust Fund of Afghanistan to meet the cost of police training and salaries for two years;
• survey and clearance of mines and other unexploded munitions from some 23.8 million square metres of high priority areas as of September 2002. Action in this field also included training, education and advocacy.

Daring to hope

Few would have dared hope for the social progress of the past 12 months. In the capital, women are no longer afraid to venture out in public, hundreds of thousands of girls and boys have returned to school and people now plan for a better future. Although desperately poor, and although insecurity still prevails in the country in absence of any extension of security forces outside of Kabul, Afghanistan now has the chance to be a nation at peace with its neighbours and with itself. It should, however, be underscored that while the achievements on the ground to date are visible and quantifiable, there are still many critical needs which must be urgently addressed, particularly through sustained international support for reconstruction activities.