Karzai wins pledge of over £10bn in Afghanistan development aid

The major donors’ conference in Tokyo, Japan, attended by about 70 countries and organisations, is aimed at setting aid levels for the crucial period through and beyond 2014, when most Nato-led foreign combat troops will leave and the war-torn country will assume responsibility for most of its own security.

“I request Afghanistan’s friends and partners to reassure the Afghan people that you will be with us,” Mr Karzai said in his opening statement.

The Japanese foreign minister and US officials travelling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the donors had made $16 billion available through 2015, which would be in line with the nearly $4bn a year that the Japanese co-hosts had said they were hoping to achieve during the one-day conference.

Japan, the second-largest donor, says it will provide up to three billion through 2016, and Germany has announced it will keep its contribution to rebuilding and development at its current level of $536m a year, at least until 2016.

But the donors are also expected to set up review and monitoring measures to assure the aid is used for development and not wasted by corruption or mismanagement, which has been a major hurdle in putting aid projects into practice.

“We have to face harsh realities filled with difficulties,’” said Japan’s prime minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Afghanistan has received nearly $60 billion (£39bn) in civilian aid since 2002. The World Bank says foreign aid makes up nearly the equivalent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Foreign aid in the decade since the US invasion in 2001 has led to better education and health care, with nearly eight million children, including three million girls, enrolled in schools.

That compares with one million children more than a decade ago, when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.

Improved health facilities have halved child mortality and expanded basic health services to nearly 60 per cent of Afghanistan population of more than 25 million, compared with less than 10 per cent in 2001.

But the flow of aid is expected to diminish sharply after international troops withdraw, despite the ongoing threat the country faces from the Taliban and other Islamist militants.

Along with security issues, donors have become wary of widespread corruption and poor project governance. Before the conference, Japanese officials said they were seeking a mechanism regularly to review how the aid money is being spent, and guarantees from Kabul that aid would not be squandered.

The US portion is expected to be in the decade-long annual range of $1bn to this year’s $2.3 billion. Officials declined to outline the future annual US allotments going forward, but the Obama administration has requested a similarly high figure for next year as it draws down American troops and hands over greater authority to Afghan forces.

The total amount of international civilian support represents a slight trailing off from the current annual level of around £5bn (£3.2bn), a number somewhat inflated by US efforts to give a short-term boost to civilian reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, mirroring President Barack Obama’s decision in 2009 to ramp up military manpower in the hopes of routing the Taliban insurgency.

The aid is intended, nevertheless, to provide a stabilising factor as Afghanistan transitions to greater independence from international involvement.

But it will come with conditions. The pledges are expected to establish a road map of accountability to ensure that Afghanistan does more to improve governance and finance management, and to safeguard the democratic process, rule of law and human rights – especially those of women.

Mr Karzai vowed to “fight corruption with strong resolve”.