The latest quarterly report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan’s Reconstruction to the U.S. Congress said part of the $400 million the United States spent on infrastructure projects in 2011 was wasted because of poor planning, coordination and execution.
So what is the U.S. Agency for International Development doing to address these problems?
“I can absolutely guarantee one thing, and that’s that [the way we operate is] going to be very different,” USAIDMission Director to Afghanistan Ken Yamashita told Stars and Stripes, adding a caveat, “I’ll hesitate if you ask me how different.”
The SIGAR report was not the first to note problems regarding U.S. infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. Last year, a report from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended that instead of focusing on volume, the United States should invest in fewer but high-impact projects that are easy to implement, James Dorsey in a Devex article. But donor strategy also needs to shift from doing quick-impact projects to those that yield long-term benefits, Dorsey adds.
Deciding on which type of project to pursue, however, boils down to “a judgment call.”
“Is it the road of tomorrow that lasts 10 to 15 years … or do you just build the road that’s needed for the next three years? I don’t think there’s a good answer to that,” Yamashita said.
Read more:
Human rights in Afghanistan: More the exception than the rule
In Afghanistan, UNDP suspends official amid police fund fraud investigation
Afghanistan’s long war: The humanitarian consequences of drawdown
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