Afghanistan requests additional time to meet reconstruction targets

Afghanistan met only seven of the twelve reconstruction goals set out last year by a combined committee of leading Afghan and international officials, Canadian news source, globeandmail.com, reported today. The two day review of the Afghanistan Compact that convened in Berlin yesterday revealed that major goals, such as the establishment of a land mines plan and a review of the administrative boundaries within the country, were not met. However, some goals originally considered difficult to attain, such as transparency in the appointment of higher-level officials, were met.

Some of the attendees agreed that the task set before Afghanistan was not an easy one, given the stringent timelines. As the Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan, David Sproule, noted, "The time frames attached for the achievement of those goals were done a year ago and, in some cases, it's not a matter of the benchmark [not being] achieved but rather we need more time to do it." Others voiced concern over how the country could possibly meet some of the long-range targets, notably the creation by 2010 of a national army for security purposes, since all of the short-term goals were not met.

An additional point that came out of the meeting, according to Sproule, was “a very strong plea by the Afghanistan government for donors to direct more of their assistance through the central and development budget of the government so they would have the means to implement the programs themselves." Though the Afghan government administers most of the projects, committee members insist on continuing to route the funds through multilateral organizations for the time being.

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