Afghanistan at risk of backslide without sustained support, says David Miliband --- Afghanistan is in grave danger of going backwards if the world uses the withdrawal of foreign troops as an excuse to abandon the country and cut humanitarian and development aid, the former British foreign secretary David Miliband has warned. -- Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) charity, called for urgent and sustainable investment to help Afghans secure their future as the country prepares to elect a new president. -- "Conflict has torn at the fabric of Afghanistan for generations and a great deal of blood and treasure has been spent in the last decade," he said. "Despite real security concerns, the international community must not turn its back on the Afghan people. The end of international military operations is the time to redouble humanitarian efforts, not scale them back." -- British forces, who are due to end their combat role at the end of the year, have withdrawn from all but two of their bases in Helmand province. At the end of February, Barack Obama ordered the Pentagon to make plans for a full pullout of US troops by the end of 2014. -- Speaking to mark the publication of an IRC report, entitled What Next for Afghanistan?, Miliband pointed out that just 0.025% of the $1.6tn the US has spent on military operations in Afghanistan would provide a year's worth of critical aid for 5 million Afghans. -- "It is striking that the sums involved are pretty small by comparison with the military expenditure that's been made," he said. "We can't afford to lose the fragile gains of the last decade and we don't have to." -- According to the report, 5 million Afghans require vital support such as food, housing and emergency medical care, while a further 4 million have longer-term needs including safety from conflict, regular employment and access to healthcare. Some 650,000 Afghans are displaced within the country, while 2.5 million are refugees. -- The report, which canvassed 136 of the IRC's 650 Afghan employees, has six key recommendations. It urges the international community to: make a long-term commitment to the people of Afghanistan; support Afghans by making high-return investments through effective community-based programmes; break the cycle of displacement; respond swiftly to humanitarian and development needs; maximise limited resources by ensuring that aid agencies share information to co-ordinate assistance; and listen to the Afghan people when drawing up a comprehensive humanitarian and development response. -- Miliband said fears of compassion fatigue should not be allowed to get in the way of helping Afghans to safeguard the gains of recent years. -- "It's precisely because it's a challenging topic that we think it's really important to report from the ground to sound a warning about the dangers that exist and to show how a real difference can be made," he said. "Obviously there have been 12 very, very tough years but we owe it to ourselves and to the Afghans to make sure we spend money in the most effective way possible, which – as we demonstrate in the report – is through a localised, community-based approach to aid that recognises that Afghanistan is a very decentralised country." --- The IRC – five of whose staff were killed in Afghanistan last year – is adamant that substantial gains have been made in education, healthcare, infrastructure and community-driven reconstruction. It highlights the World Bank-funded national solidarity programme, which helped establish 32,000 community development councils based on traditional Afghan grassroots governance. The programme, it says, not only increased access to basic utilities but also furthered male acceptance of female participation in public life. -- Last month the UK government's aid watchdog warned that British aid spending of nearly £60m a year in Afghanistan would do little to reduce poverty unless the management of projects was significantly improved. -- The Independent Commission for Aid Impact advised diplomats working in development to improve their consultation with recipients, and to plan practical projects based on what actually works in Afghanistan, rather than chasing "unproven theories of change". -- Forty-one aid workers were killed in Afghanistan in 2013. A Taliban attack on the Roots of Peace landmine charity in Kabul last Friday killed a girl and a man and left five people injured. -- The Taliban, who denounced the 5 April presidential elections as a sham, have vowed to disrupt voting day and warned that anyone who works on the election or casts a ballot would be a target. -- According to the UN, 2,959 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year and 5,656 were injured – up 14% on 2012. Bombs and improvised explosive devices detonated in public areas were responsible for about a third of the death toll. - More, Sam Jones - Guardian, at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/apr/02/afghanistan-risk-backslide-sustained-support-david-miliband