A rise in crises around the world results in a sharp increase in the demand for humanitarian aid that is supposed to help in meeting the critical needs of the individuals who are affected by such crises. Harassment, torture, illnesses, starvation, poor sanitation, and other effects resulting from crises around the world have been causing a need for shelter, medical care, water, food, and other basic needs required for sustenance of life. Humanitarian organizations have been striving to meet such needs either indirectly through supporting the local services that are engaged in improving the lives of the affected persons or directly through donating items and money to the affected groups. Whatever the case, it is plausible to argue that crises around the world have been increasing the dependence of nations on foreign aid, which has always been flowing from the more developed nations such as the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, and others to the less developed ones torn apart by war such as Afghanistan among others. This essay evaluates the effects of war and peace on foreign aid in Afghanistan. The essay finds that foreign aid into the nation has been depended on the political stability of the nation such that it has war and peace have been the motivators of foreign aid in the nation. In specificity, the foreign aid given to Afghanistan was appropriated with the purpose of attaining peace and stability through the elimination of violence in the country.
Following the completion of the Bonn Conference of 2001, the international community and the nations within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) opted to demolish the foundations of terrorism and aid Afghanistan through the provision of foreign capital through foreign aid (Suhrke, 2011). The foreign capital that Afghanistan was to receive would help the nation in taking significant steps towards development and stability. In 2001, when Afghanistan created its legislative administration, many nations in the developed world became interested in helping the nation to attain similar goals of development (Hogg et al., 2013). Therefore, the international community, through different main pledging conferences held between 2002 and 2012 in Kabul, London, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo, focused on helping Afghanistan to improve its economic and political status. When the interim government of the nation was established, a huge amount of funding was pledged towards the reconstruction of the country.
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The international community, under the US’s leadership, has ensured the appropriation of over $100 billion in foreign aid to Afghanistan in the last ten years (Coburn, 2013). The aid that the nation has received was supposed to help in the rebuilding of the county’s unbalanced economy. Most of the donations were directed towards funding huge development projects as well as the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The aids were specifically divided into two primary areas. For example, fifty-one percent of the funding was dissected towards security while the remaining portion was meant to fund projects of development in the remaining areas, which included health, private sector, education, social protection, rural development and agriculture, governance, and others (Suhrke, 2011). Close to thirty-percent of the aid was provided to via the Afghanistan budget and the remaining seventy percent was managed through the development partners of the nation. It should be noted that the development budget of Afghanistan has been entirely reliant on foreign aid (Fishstein & Wilder, 2012).
As much as there has been some levels of improvements in infrastructure, education, child and maternal health, poverty reduction, life expectancy, and a growth in the country’s gross domestic product, the improvements remain relatively modest compared to the amount of foreign aid that the nation has received over the past (Suhrke, 2011). It is also reported that the rates of growth witnessed by the nation have been too slow to allow the nation to catch up with other nations in the developing world. Sixteen years have elapsed yet the state of affairs in Afghanistan has not improved much. For instance, Afghanistan remains the third must corrupt nation according to data from the Transparency International group, a factor that has been identified as one of the most notable contributors of its extreme poverty (Hogg et al., 2013). Conflicts, as well as the scarcity of economic opportunities in the nation have resulted in many people fleeing the nation, which has caused both brain drain and capital flight. Even with the significant levels of investment in the nation’s economy and global military support, the state has been left behind in development compared to other nations such as India and China.
It should be noted that the objective of the foreign aid that has been flowing into Afghanistan was to counter the negative effects that a period of war and civil unrest in the nation had created for a long time. Perhaps, for the case of the nation as a post conflict state, the foreign aid from the international community came a little too soon (Coburn, 2013). Because the governmental institutions of the nation have been too weak to and incapable of dealing with the volume of foreign aid, and because of the weak technological capability, Afghanistan has not been able to realize a proper absorption and expenditure of foreign aid. The relationship between war and peace on foreign aid in the nation can therefore be learned through a brief analysis of the effects of the donor funding flown into the Afghanistan economy.
The problems of Afghanistan have appeared to be endless because of the effects of foreign aid. For example, the high levels of inflow of US dollars into the economy have fueled inflation and corruption, which has killed entrepreneurial creativity and culture of the nation. Corruption in Afghanistan has been resulting from the fact that ‘free’ money flowing into its economy has been ending up in the pockets of a few individuals, mostly government executives (Samin, 2016). The influx of money into the economy of Afghanistan has also been causing a disruption to the economic flow of goods and services because of the negative effects of cost-push inflation. Therefore, government has been unable to function efficiently, which has continued to attract foreign sympathy and additional foreign funding for the objectives of development and political stabilization. Therefore, war and peace have been attracting foreign aid to Afghanistan since 2001.
In conclusion, this essay has described the relationship among war, peace, and foreign aid to Afghanistan. It is notable that the attainment of peace and political stability through the elimination of terrorism and other forms of violence was the primary factor that caused the international community and the OECD to consider helping Afghanistan. However, despite the large volume of money that has flown into the Afghan economy, only so much has been realized in terms of development and attainment of political stability. Resultantly, the nation has continued to attract the sympathy of the developed nations worldwide, which has continued to flow more foreign money into the nation. Resultantly, the development budget of the nation has been entirely dependent on foreign funding and improper management has continued to place the nation under consideration for aid.
References
Coburn, N. (2013). Informal justice and the international community in Afghanistan . Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.
Fishstein, P., & Wilder, A. (2012). Winning hearts and minds? Examining the relationship between Aid and Security in Afghanistan. Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA .
Hogg, R., Nassif, C., Osorio, C. G., Byrd, W., & Beath, A. (2013). Afghanistan in transition: looking beyond 2014 . World Bank Publications.
Samim, M. (2016). Afghanistan’s Addiction to Foreign Aid . The Diplomat . Retrieved 3 February 2018, from https://thediplomat.com/2016/05/afghanistans-addiction-to-foreign-aid/
Suhrke, A. (2011). When more is less: The international project in Afghanistan . Columbia University Press.
