Afghan donors offer $16B in development aid

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, second from right, speaks as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, listens during a press conference at the Presidential Palace Saturday, July 7, 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan. / Pool,AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski

Updated 11:29 PM ET

(CBS/AP) TOKYO - International donors pledged Sunday $16 billion in badly needed development aid for Afghanistan over the next four years when most foreign troops will leave as Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community not to abandon his country.

The major donors' conference, attended by about 70 countries and organizations, 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," Karzai said in his opening statement.

U.S. declares Afghanistan major non-NATO ally

Japanese foreign minister and U.S. officials traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the donors have made $16 billion available through 2015, which would be in line with the nearly $4 billion per 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 $3 billion through 2016, and Germany has announced it will keep its contribution to rebuilding and development at its current level of $536 million 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 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 U.S. invasion in 2001 has led to better education and health care, with nearly 8 million children, including 3 million girls, enrolled in schools. That compares with 1 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 percent of Afghanistan population of more than 25 million, compared with less than 10 percent in 2001.

But the flow of aid is expected to sharply diminish after international troops withdraw, despite the ongoing threat the country faces from the Taliban and other Islamic 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 to regularly review how the aid money is being spent, and guarantees from Kabul that aid would not be squandered.

The U.S. portion is expected to be in the decade-long annual range of $1 billion to this year's $2.3 billion. Officials declined to outline the future annual U.S. 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 Obama administration will ask Congress to sustain U.S. assistance for Afghanistan near the average amount it has been over the last decade through 2017 as part of the international effort to stabilize the country even as most international forces pull out over the next two years. Secretary of State Clinton made the pledge Sunday.

The U.S. funds will help Afghanistan build its economy and make necessary reforms, Clinton said.

"We have to make the security gains and the transition irreversible," Clinton told officials, including Karzai.

She said Afghan security "cannot only be measured by the absence of war."

"It has to be measured by whether people have jobs and economic opportunity; whether they believe the government is meeting their needs."

Clinton said Afghanistan has made substantial progress over the last decade, but needs effective collaboration between its government, private sector, neighbors and international donors "so that this decade of transformation can produce results."

Clinton said the aid request to Congress through 2017 would be to maintain funding at or near the average level, without specifying further.

The total amount of international civilian support represents a slight trailing off from the current annual level of around $5 billion, a number somewhat inflated by U.S. 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 stabilizing 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.

Karzai vowed to "fight corruption with strong resolve." But he still faces international weariness with the war and frustration over his failure to crack down on corruption.

Clinton, who briefly visited the Afghan capital on Saturday before heading to Tokyo, had breakfast with Karzai and acknowledged that corruption was a "major problem."

The $4 billion in annual civilian aid comes on top of $4.1 billion in yearly assistance pledged last May at a NATO conference in Chicago to fund the Afghan National Security Forces from 2015 to 2017.

[formerlyluvnut]

So why does the USA have to GIVE BILLIONS in "aid"???

[credibility2]

Rather than throwing our money at Afghanistan and using it at home, why doesn't the U.S. and other countries demand of Afghanistan that they begin mining their vast rich copper deposits that would produce enough money to get the country up to speed with no longer being a third world country.

[smittyc]

China is going to mine their resourse pretty much all of them. The meetings might not be open to the press but while Karzai poses with Clinton and is getting every dollar available just like Syrias and Irans oil, China is getting the mineral wealth in Afghanistan.

[GTR5]

Why? It will all be stolen by the corrupt leaders there. No more money and no more Visas.

[Rejco100]

This will be BLOOD MONEY to maim & kill as many Afghans in order to steal the country's natural resources.

[notparicular]

King Louis XVI kept on financing American Revolution until France got broke. Then King Louis lost his head.

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

It's not enough that we lost this war after 10 years, we have to continue to act as if, it was in our plans to ruin our economy in the process too.

[87lwrdr]

Again we give money away to a third world country that it's leaders are going to pocket the majority and the rest will somehow be funneled to the Taliban. When is this country going to understand the money that is given to these countries is being used AGAINST us in a war we should have won years ago. Why are we the only ones the play by "The Marquis of Queensbury" rules? Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam, the same people that wave to you out the front door are shooting at you out the back door.

[hk100]

It is wrong for the US to give aid to countries which execute people for converting to Christianity and which execute people who preach the bible. This evil must stop.

[vernique3]

Hilary Clinton says Afghanistan success has to be measured by whether people have jobs and economic opportunity; whether they believe the government is meeting their needs." It appears that also applies to America where many people are unemployed,lack economic opportunity and find that congress is not meeting their needs. Time to put America,s need first.

[ugacrew]

" International donors pledged Sunday $16 billion in badly needed development aid for Afghanistan over the next four years when most foreign troops will leave".........great strategy. Allow the US to go broke while their infrastructure crumbles into shambles, minimize the number of foreign troops we put on the ground while simultaneously weakening their military by wearing out their equipment, etc., and when they depart, but only after they depart, we can then inject funds, and use the training they gave us to rebuild and strengthen our own forces.

Our taliban (boogie man just around the corner) has worked wonders for us and along with the billions we have gotten from the US we have prospered along the way.

We find the circus acts televised by the US congress most entertaining although the big difference between them and the Italian soccer league championships are the visible violence. They do most of theirs on paper. We are particular fans of that crying fella, Beyner they call him? Lately, the women have been wanting to determine if that Issa fella wears a toupee.

We are especially fond of that Supreme Court of theirs because now we can take some of the billions that we get in foreign aid and pump it back into their elections to make sure whoever wins will do those things we really want, i.e. more foreign aid.

Yes, we've done well.
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"Foreign aid in the decade since the U.S. invasion in 2001 has led to better education and health care, with nearly 8 million children, including 3 million girls, enrolled in schools"..........

Maybe we American citizens should all move to Afghanistan. We can get an education, perhaps, at an accredited institution AND health care.