SAWA-Australia's principles and values and Afghanistan's reality

• SAWA-Australia works exclusively with volunteers.
• SAWA-Australia does not employ foreigners.
• SAWA-Australia supports Afghan women to help themselves.
• SAWA-Australia gets its aid targets from Afghan women.

How does this compare with common NGO practice in Afghanistan?

The following article appeared at BBC NEWS in February, 2006. It gives a frank description of reality in Afghanistan.

The battle to rebuild Afghanistan

by Toby Poston, BBC News business reporter.

As more than 5,000 British troops are being deployed in Afghanistan, it is becoming clear that the dire security situation is just one of many obstacles that hold back reconstruction efforts.

True, security is a major worry for aid agencies, who saw 30 of their workers die last year.

But in some cases, the agencies' wasteful bureaucracies are also holding back efforts to rebuild this war ravaged country, according to Ashraf Ghani, who has written a report on international development and post-war reconstruction, sponsored by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

As chancellor of Kabul University and Afghan finance minister between 2002-2004, Mr Ghani's word carries some weight.

When he says millions of dollars worth of aid money is being wasted, both donor nations and aid agencies take note.

Complete waste of money

Mr Ghani believes the Afghan government could build a school for about $40,000 (£23,000), a fraction of the $250,000 cost racked up when one international aid agency took on the task of delivering 500 schools.

The difference would arise because the Afghan government would use locally hired contractors, while the aid agency spent 80% of its funds on hiring external technical assistants, he explains.

Another case of money being wasted was the reconstruction of the road between Kandahar and the capital Kabul, which the government estimated would cost $35m.

It was eventually built by USAID and ended up costing more than $190m, Mr Ghani says.

Moreover, these are not isolated cases, Mr Ghani insists, as he estimates that more than 90% of the more than $1bn that was spent on about 400 UN projects in Afghanistan in 2002 was a waste of money.

More harm than good

But the billions of dollars of aid pumped into Afghanistan over the past four years have not merely been wasted; the cash injections might even be doing more harm than good, Mr Ghani suggests.

The country's 280,000 civil servants earn an average wage of $50 per month, while approximately 50,000 Afghans work for aid organisations where support staff earn up to $1000 a month.

"Within six months of starting my job as finance minister, my best people had been stolen by international aid organisations who could offer them forty to a hundred times the salary we could," Ashraf Ghani says.

In particular, it has been damaging to the government and its ability to build law and order and deliver public services, he says.

With more than 2,400 national and international aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) registered in the country, the government is finding it hard to hold on to its staff, Mr Ghani says.

Lucrative work

ODI workers on the ground say Mr Ghani has a point.

They say Afghanistan is brimming with expensive foreign contractors and consultants who are often duplicating or replacing work that could be carried out by the government.

"There is a tendency for UN agencies and non-government organisations to rush in with thousands of small projects, each requiring international staff and drivers," says Clare Lockhart, a research fellow at the ODI and a former advisor to the Afghan finance ministry.

These experts cost far more in overheads like living expenses and repatriation costs than in actual fees for their services, but with further lucrative work in the pipeline, it is not in their interests to pass on their skills to their Afghan counterparts, Ms Lockhart explains.

Read the full article at BBC News, 26 February 2006.

SAWA-Australia is different! SAWA-Australia raises funds for projects established and run by Afghan women who know the local needs. All projects employ local people under secure and fair conditions at Afghan wages. If you really want to help Afghan women, don't spend your money on foreign drivers, carpenters, instructors and consultants. Let Afghan women make the decisions, give them the work, and donate to SAWA-Australia to turn their plans and aspirations into reality!