USAID

Rebuilding Afghanistan

OUR CURRENT EFFORTS IN A WAR-TORN COUNTRY

The United States Agency for International Development Cpl. Matthew Roberson/U.S. Marine Corps.

APRIL 11, 2002
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | WWW.USAID.GOV

dented amounts of food in record time by the

United Nations World Food Program (WFP),

with funding from USAID, has greatly

reduced the loss of life. The majority of this

wheat, oil and lentils came from the United

States and has fed more than six million men

women and children.

The United States has pledged nearly $300

million in this fiscal year alone for Afghan

relief and reconstruction. Of this sum, $167

million is managed by USAID. With the

demise of the Taliban and the establishment of

the new Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) in

December 2001, Afghanistan can begin to

focus on recovery and reconstruction, even as

the drought continues.

To that end, USAID is working with

local communities to begin to rehabilitate

key infrastructure, such as roads, bridges,

health clinics, schools, government buildings, and markets, as well as the water and

sanitation systems in provincial capitals.

Through innovative cash-for-work and

food-for-work programs, Afghans are hired

to complete the necessary work, thus stimulating the local economy.

While acknowledging that emergency

relief efforts are still urgently required,

USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios outlines four goals for reconstruction: 1)

Restoring food security through agriculture

and increasing family income; 2) Expanding

education and health services; 3) Stabilizing

the country through the integration of excombatants (job creation), anti-narcotics,

and infrastructure repair; and 4) Building the

legitimacy and capacity of the AIA. 

USAID is working with the AIA, humanitarian organizations and the rest of the international community, to begin the process of

building a safe, stable society that meets the

needs of its people. ■

Afghanistan presents one of the most difficult humanitarian and

development challenges the U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) has ever faced. Years of civil war, comRebuilding Afghanistan

pounded by the Taliban rule and the worst

drought in memory, have devastated the

country. Approximately half the country lives

in absolute poverty. Malnutrition is widespread. Fifty percent of the people are unemployed—70 percent are illiterate. Virtually all

the country’s institutions and much of its

infrastructure have been destroyed.

Historic efforts have been made during

the Taliban regime and the subsequent war

against terrorism to deliver critically needed

assistance to the Afghan people. Even before

the events of last fall, Afghanistan was the

United States’ top recipient of humanitarian

aid, receiving $174 million in fiscal year

2001 before September 11. 

During the last several months, the United

States has played a leading role in meeting the

Afghans’ immediate needs for food, water,

shelter and medicine. The delivery of unprece-

[left] Afghan girls release white doves during a

special ceremony dedicated to women on

International Women’s Day, March 8, 2002.

[below] The former Coca-Cola bottling plant in

Kabul's western neighborhood of Karte Char.

This and surrounding areas were severely damaged in fighting between Mujahideen factions

in the early 1990s.

Judy Benjamin/USAID Chris Brown/USAID
food production capabilities and depleted

critical seed stocks. Although the drought

will more than likely continue in

Afghanistan for at least the next 12 to 18

months, the U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) is committed to help

for the long term.

>> Agriculture is the way of life for 70

percent of Afghanistan’s people, and USAID

is helping farmers re-establish production

and become more profitable and efficient.

This effort includes rehabilitating the irrigation system and providing tools, agricultural

equipment, 15,000 tons of fertilizer, livestock vaccines and 7,000 tons of seed for

spring planting, which will yield 125,000

metric tons of food. Over the next two years,

USAID will provide a total of 48,000 metric

tons of seed, yielding 772,000 metric tons

of food.

>> Experts also are training Afghan farmers in planting methods, crop protection, and

animal husbandry. USAID is funding Mercy

Corps International to plant fruit-tree

nurseries, distribute saplings and establish

veterinary field units. 

>> Lack of water is the most critical

constraint to reviving Afghanistan’s agriculture. USAID is funding the drilling of wells,

the reconstruction of local irrigation systems, and the rehabilitation of the water

supply. USAID’s implementing partner,

FOCUS, is installing wells throughout the

Balkh and Baghlan Provinces and will construct piped water systems in Bamiyan

Province. Other organizations are rehabilitating canals and reservoirs and constructing erosion barriers. USAID will fund a

nationwide water-resource assessment to

better understand and respond to the effects

of four years of drought. ■

T

raditionally, agriculture is the largest and most important sector of

the economy in Afghanistan. War conditions, coupled with the

region’s worst drought in memory have devastated the country’s 

Rehabilitating Agriculture

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Cpl. Matthew Roberson/U.S. Marine Corps.

An Afghan examines a parched vineyard.
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | WWW.USAID.GOV

civics and social studies for grades one through

12. More than 5 million books were delivered

by UNICEF under the AIA’s Back-to-School

Program in time for opening day, March 23.

Nearly 5 million more will be delivered in

upcoming weeks.The textbooks are printed in

the Afghan languages of Pashtu and Dari and

are accompanied by teachers’ kits and other

school supplies. 

>> USAID is funding 20 teams of five

teacher trainers to conduct four-week training sessions with 4,000 educators. Half of the

trainers and half of the educators are women.

>> As part of its food-for-education program, the World Food Program (WFP), with

USAID support, is providing nutritious

school meals to schoolchildren in several districts of Badakhshan Province, in northeastern

Afghanistan, and is expanding nationwide to

reach 1 million children. In this program, girls

receive five liters of vegetable oil every month

as an extra incentive for regular school attendance. The program reduces dropout rates,

increases school attendance, and encourages

families to send girls to school.

WFP is also starting food-for-work projects to rehabilitate approximately 600

schools and enable women-run bakeries to

provide bread to the pupils. About 50,000

teachers are receiving monthly food packages

to supplement their income, through a foodfor-civil-servants program introduced across

the country. This program is part of

USAID’s $100 million comprehensive support to WFP’s efforts in Afghanistan. 

>> A USAID-funded program is encouraging Afghan women and girls to read by hosting reading classes and improving the country’s

libraries. USAID is funding the training of

library staff and supplying books. ■

Education is a key building block to a stable and economically selfsufficient society. In general, improvements in women’s educationhave contributed the most by far to the total decline in child

Education 

malnutrition. The mortality rates of children

born to mothers possessing a secondary education

are nearly 36 percent

lower than those of children born to mothers who

have only attended primary school.

During the Taliban

regime, Afghan girls

were banned from the

classroom. In 1999, an

estimated 32 percent of

Afghanistan’s 4.4 million

children were enrolled. Ninety-two percent

of the country’s girls did not attend school.

Many of Afghanistan’s 3,600 schools were

damaged or destroyed by decades of conflict and lack basic supplies.

For the first time in years, girls have the

opportunity to obtain an education. Female

teachers, once shunned from the classroom—

and society—have returned too. The Afghan

Interim Authority (AIA), the U.S. government, the United Nations Children’s Fund

(UNICEF) and many humanitarian organizations are working together to bring at least 1.5

million Afghan children and 60,000 teachers

“back to school” with textbooks, school supplies and training materials in hand.

>> Through a $6.5 million grant to the

University of Nebraska at Omaha, the U.S.

Agency for International Development

(USAID) is editing and printing nearly 10

million textbooks for science, math, reading,

For the first time in years, Afghan girls have the

opportunity to gain an education. Most communities in Afghanistan conduct the school year

from late March through December in deference

to the cold winters. USAID is working with the

Afghan Interim Authority and the United Nations

to ensure that students have textbooks, nourishing meals and functional schools.

Cpl. Matthew Roberson/U.S. Marine Corps.
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nutrition of Afghans, particularly women,

children and refugees. It is bringing basic

health services and health education to

under-served communities, focusing on

hygiene, water and sanitation; immunizations; infectious diseases; as well as care for

pregnant mothers and newborns. 

>> USAID is funding the vaccination of

more than 2 million children against measles

as part of a joint UNICEF/World Health

Organization measles campaign. These children are also receiving vitamin A capsules

that will enhance their chance of survival

from childhood illnesses. 

>>It is granting an additional $1 million

from the Leahy War Victims Fund to support

the social and economic rehabilitation and

integration of land mine victims and other

disabled people. These funds also will provide

training and specialized technical expertise to

Afghan orthopedic technologists. 

>> USAID is funding a polio eradication campaign, expanding maternal and

child health services, training and equipping community health care workers, supporting Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health

and working to establish a health surveillance system to meet the health care needs

of the Afghan people.

>> Since October 2000, USAID has

contributed more $8.3 million to address

the water and sanitation needs of

Afghanistan’s people. This includes funding

the drilling of wells and rehabilitation of

water sources, the installation of pipelines

and the construction of hand pumps and pit

latrines. Afghans have received water purification tablets, soap, and drinking water as

well as education about safe hygiene practices, sanitation and waste disposal. ■

One of every four afghan children dies before the age of 5. This child

mortality rate is among the highest in the world. Afghanistan’s average life expectancy is 46 years. There is currently one physician 

Improving Health

for every 50,000 people. An estimated 40 percent of the Afghan population has no access

to primary health care services.

Vaccination rates for many preventable

diseases among the country’s 11 million children have fallen to dangerously low levels in

recent years. Less than half of the country’s

children have been vaccinated against

measles—a disease that kills an average of

35,000 Afghan children each year. 

The U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) is spending $9.7

million to improve the basic health and

USAID
>> USAID is working with the Ministry

of Education and the International

Organization of Migration to reconstruct

schools and universities. These include a

$140,000 project to rebuild the Kabul

Teacher Training College. In addition,

USAID is reconstructing Bamian University

and rehabilitating three schools in Kabul and

one in Mazar-e-Sharif. 

>> USAID is providing infrastructure

and equipment for key ministries of the AIA,

including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs

and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

>> USAID is rehabilitating three hospitals, one in Kandahar and two in Kabul. The

Kandahar hospital, which is the primary

health facility for Kandahar and three neighboring provinces, was damaged during

recent fighting.

>> Afghanistan’s Ministry of Irrigation is

unable to function with its antiquated equipment, and this is jeopardizing the availability

of drinking water. With USAID funding, the

Ministry will receive critical drilling equipment. Water sources are being rehabilitated

in southwestern Baglan and northeastern

Bamiyan as well.

>> USAID, through the French humanitarian organization, Agency for Technical

Cooperation and Development (ACTED),

rehabilitated the Salang Tunnel thus opening

a major supply route, allowing greater quantities of goods, services and humanitarian aid

to flow more quickly from commercial centers to Afghan populations. The re-opening

of the tunnel has shortened the trip between

Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif by as much as 14

hours. Some 100 to 300 vehicles per day are

now using the tunnel.

>> As part of its commitment to jumpstart mass media in Afghanistan, USAID is

providing funding to rehabilitate a journalist-training center which will train up to 500

local journalists over the next few years. In

addition, USAID is rehabilitating an independent media center, which will house production facilities for a daily independent

newspaper and provide a meeting space for

local journalists. ■

Afghanistan has suffered immense physical destruction. Returning

Afghan refugees are likely to find their homes or businesses reduced

to piles of rubble and crumbling foundations. The Afghan Interim 

Infrastructure

the initiation of critical services, such as education, transport and the provision of clean

water. They also provide Afghans with tangible proof that a new phase in Afghanistan’s

history—characterized by a responsive government—has begun.

>> USAID is providing nine grants totaling $5,654,707 for spot reconstruction of

critical infrastructure, including roads, clinics, mills, canals, markets and schools. Many

of these projects, spread throughout

Afghanistan, use cash-for-work and food-forwork incentives to employ local labor and

thus stimulate the local economy.

Authority (AIA), anxious to start providing

goods and services to its citizens, is hampered

by a basic lack of office space from which to

operate. Civil society, media and local government likewise cannot function without

adequate infrastructure.

The U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) is responding to this

urgent need by launching 27 medium- and

small-scale reconstruction projects worth $7

million in Afghanistan. These projects enable

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | WWW.USAID.GOV

[left] In partnership with the Afghan Ministry of

Public Works and ACTED, USAID funded the

rehabilitation of the Salang Tunnel and the

creation of an innovative traffic control system.

[below] One of 10 classrooms USAID is rehabilitating in the Kabul Teacher Training College.

Jeanne Pryor/USAID Jeanne Pryor/USAID
for providing services that benefit entire communities, such as repairing infrastructure.

>> Through a $736,544 grant to Shelter

for Life, Afghans have been hired to repair

some of the worst portions of a road connecting Kunduz and Takhar provinces in

the northeast. 

>> USAID has provided $700,000 to

help Afghans begin small-scale income generation activities at the village level, such as

growing kitchen gardens, embroidering, producing cheese and yogurt, and crafting shoes. 

>> USAID is working with the non-governmental organization, Agency for

Technical Cooperation and Development

(ACTED) to support the establishment of a

women’s center on the Shomali Plains. The

center provides basic education, health

instruction, and training for income-generation projects such as making clothing and

quilts for distribution to hospitals, orphanages, schools and families. ACTED is opening four more centers in Kabul, Pul-eKhumri, Maimaneh, and Taloqan which will

benefit more than 5,000 women. ■

Ahealthy economy is a key foundation for a stable society. USAID is

building Afghanistan’s economy by creating jobs that enable Afghans

to support their families and meet their country’s most urgent needs.

Creating Jobs

>> In fiscal years 2001 and 2002, USAID

has provided more than $25 million in support of humanitarian assistance projects with

a cash-for-work or food-for work component.

Local Afghans receive cash or food payments

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Jean Pryor/USAID

USAID is employing 3,200 Afghan widows to sew

quilts and clothing as part of an income-generation project.
has improved markedly; however much work

remains to be done. Through U.S. government and international community support

of the AIA and the humanitarian community, many girls are returning to school with

textbooks in hand. Women are returning to

the university and have a newly rehabilitated

dormitory in which to live and study. Many

women now have access to health clinics and

are being trained to meet the health and

nutritional needs of their families.

USAID is specifically giving the Afghan

women the education, skills and tools they

need to obtain jobs, support their families

and integrate into the political and public life

of this new stage in Afghanistan’s history. 

>>The World Food Program(WFP), with

funding from USAID, is operating bakeries

which employ Afghan widows, and at the

same time, provide heavily subsidized bread

Afghan women enjoyed a long history of freedom and education

before the Taliban assumed power in 1996. Women were deans

of universities, ministers and members of the country’s highest 

Empowering Women

legislative body. During the Taliban regime,

Afghan women were shunned from public

life, prohibited from working outside the

home, and punished for showing their faces.

Education, both traditional and vocational,

was forbidden. The rates of depression and

trauma-related illnesses among women living under Taliban rule were among the highest in the world.

A great number of highly educated, skilled

women fled the country during the last

decade. The U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) is committed to

helping the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA)

build a nation where women have the freedom and the resources to pursue an education and a livelihood within their own country. It is hoped that these efforts will encourage Afghan expatriate women to return home

to help transform their nation.

The situation of women in Afghanistan

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | WWW. USAID.GOV

to Afghanistan’s urban poor—particularly

women and children. At least 250,000 people

will be assisted this year. During the Taliban

era, the bakeries were one of the few places in

the country where women could work. With

support from the USAID, the WFP is working to expand this innovative program to

other provinces in the country.

>> USAID, through the International

Organization for Migration (IOM), is rehabilitating the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs

building complex and providing support for

technical advisors to assist the Ministry in establishing operations and developing programs. 

>> USAID and IOM are rehabilitating

the offices of Ariana, a national women’s

non-governmental organization. Ariana is

based in Kabul and provides educational and

vocational courses to women and girls. The

grant is providing training supplies and

equipment and is increasing the organization’s ability to provide training and educational courses.

>>The USAID-funded Afghan Women’s

Network (AWN) is providing returning

refugees with job skills, including managerial training, in order to enhance women’s abilities to achieve economic independence. The

non-political, non-profit organization aims

to promote solidarity and cooperation

amongst Afghan woman, and to strengthen

their capacity to enhance their self-reliance

and attain their rights. AWN is also training

women to participate in the loya jirga, the

emerging political process.

In addition to these specific initiatives,

USAID’s entire reconstruction program for

Afghanistan emphasizes women’s participation and benefit. For example, teacher training and textbook distribution programs benefit women teachers and girls’ schools,

among others. USAID’s health program

focuses particularly on maternal and child

health issues. ■

USAID
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | WWW. USAID.GOV

regime, people were forbidden from listening

to music. News and information was tightly

controlled and communities were isolated. 

The U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID) is working with the

Afghan Interim Authority, Voice of America

(VOA) and others to build a communications network that will help to inform and

unite Afghanistan’s people and thus contribute to a stable society.

>> USAID and the International

Organization for Migration distributed

30,000 radios and launched the

Humanitarian Emergency Afghan Radio

Project to provide news and information

concerning food distribution, humanitarian

aid and security. Daily bulletins produced in

the local languages of Pashtu and Dari are

distributed to a growing network of local

radio stations in Afghanistan and are aired

on VOA and other international broadcasters in the region, such as the British

Broadcasting Company.

>> USAID is spending $1 million

through Internews to train and equip local

Afghan journalists to report on political, economic and social issues. Funds will provide

much-needed resources to help start local

newspapers, radio and television stations, and

Internet providers, as well as support journalist associations and freedom of expression

organizations throughout Afghanistan.

>> USAID is providing funds to VOA

for the salaries of 10 Dari- and Pashtuspeaking service correspondents to expand

news coverage for the VOA inside

Afghanistan. ■

Afghanistan is a radio culture. Well before the civil war began in

1978-79, Afghans listened to radio—especially music—in their

villages as a primary form of entertainment. Under the Taliban 

Restoring Media

Afghans hold USAID-supplied

radios that allow them to hear

news and bulletins concerning

food distribution, humanitarian

aid and security.

IOM

IOM