Working groups pivotal to success of reconstruction conference

As a three-day international conference on Afghan reconstruction in Islamabad ended its second day, Dale Lautenbach, spokeswoman for the conference, told IRIN on Wednesday the working groups were "vital" to the needs assessment being carried out for the country by participants. "At this point we are looking at a harvesting of ideas," she said. The gathering is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank. Addressing reporters, Lautenbach explained that high-level meetings in Washington earlier this month and scheduled for Tokyo in January, had requested the three hosting organisations to produce a preliminary needs assessment. The conference, planned several months ago, had now become a vital round of consultations between experienced and knowledgeable Afghans from the NGO and professional community and their international assistance partners. She maintained that a theme which had informed most of the discussion so far had been the need to involve communities in decision-making from the outset, particularly as many of these communities were already experienced in service delivery and meeting basic needs. Regarding the various working groups, the one discussing private-sector development in a post-conflict country identified "freedom to do business" as its principal goal, she said. The group saw opportunities for the Afghan private sector in the work of reconstruction and that in the longer term, the principle of building "a sustainable economic environment based on private enterprise and thus limiting and minimising the extent and duration of external aid" would emerge. Another group, which has been discussing the mobilisation of community leadership, envisioned links from the grass-roots level right up to central government. The structures should ensure that women were heard, and that existing systems in the form of village elders, village organisations and women's shuras, or consultative councils, be tapped. Lautenbach said agriculture was one sector which could bounce back in the short term, pending key inputs of seed, implements and fertiliser. She added that in the longer-term, participants saw a pressing need for micro-finance and irrigation projects if agriculture was to expand. Asked if she had any idea of the cost of such a recovery, Lautenbach told reporters: "We know it's going to be a lot of money, we know it's going to be a big challenge and we know it is going to be a very long time." She maintained, however, that it would be very premature to put an exact price tag on the mammoth project. The conference, which has drawn over 300 participants, including a large number of Afghans, will debate working-group discussions in a plenary session on Thursday.