US$ 15 billion needed for reconstruction

A senior UN official said on Wednesday that a needs verification campaign would immediately follow the Tokyo meeting next week on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, estimated to cost about US$ 15 billion over the next decade, according to a preliminary report.

"We are planning to carry out a needs verification campaign after the Tokyo meeting. The campaign will take place in the field," United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Assistant Resident Representative for Afghanistan Umer Daudzai told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The Ministerial Level Conference on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan is to be held on 21-22 January. It is expected to be attended by more than 50 countries, as well as international financial institutions, the UN, and the new interim Afghan government. The meeting is not a pledging session, though members are expected to bring some kind of concrete proposals for Afghanistan's rebuilding and to assess the preliminary need assessment report released on Tuesday.

"The meeting is an introduction to a pledging session," Daudzai said. "This is a kind of a theoretical formulation. There will be a real pledging session with the active participation of Afghanistan afterwards," he added.

According to initial estimates by a needs assessment team of the UNDP, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, up to US$ 15 billion will be required over 10 years for the reconstruction of the country with priority being security, development of infrastructure, social development, and demining.

"More than two decades of conflict and three years of drought have led to widespread human suffering and massive displacement of people in Afghanistan. Many parts of the country are vulnerable to famine, the infrastructure base has been destroyed or degraded, and human resources have been depleted," said the report released to the donor community ahead of the Tokyo meeting.

"State institutions have become largely non-functional and the economy increasingly fragmented. The social fabric has been weakened considerably, and human rights undermined, with women and minorities being the principal sufferers. Prior to 1979, Afghanistan was among the poorest countries of the world. Since then, its economic and social indicators have only deteriorated further," the report added.

The report does not include an assessment of food needs or support for refugees that is being conducted separately by UN agencies.

Daudzai said once the Tokyo meeting was over there would be an immediate follow-up for project programme formulation on a fast track basis in collaboration with Afghan authorities. "We have a two-pronged strategy, quick projects for the year 2002 and then medium and long-term projects," he added.