*EPF405 05/30/2002
USAID's Natsios Sees Success but Remaining Hurdles in Afghan Relief
(Reconstruction of agriculture sector urgently needed, he says) (760)

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - Wide-scale famine has been averted in Afghanistan and relief has been extended to millions of homes, said top U.S aid official Andrew Natsios May 29. The administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) predicts that the international community will need to supply significant aid and support to Afghanistan for at least two more years until the nation's all-important agriculture sector can be rebuilt from the devastation of war and drought.

Speaking to hundreds of health, relief and development professionals from more than 75 countries at a Washington conference, Natsios reminded his audience of the many serious problems that aid agencies confronted after the fall of the Taliban allowed a survey of conditions throughout the country. Prolonged and severe malnutrition has contributed to a "dire health situation," he said, along with low life expectancy, high rates of mortality among mothers and children, and a high rate of infectious disease.

The relief community has been making some progress against these challenges in recent months, with extensive vaccination programs conducted by the U.N. Children's Fund in cooperation with a variety of other nongovernmental organization. Immunization campaigns are expanding the vaccination rates for both measles and polio, Natsios said. USAID is also involved in programs to better train health care workers and to rebuild the health care system.

The drought and resulting hunger are critical factors in causing widespread health problems, the USAID administrator said. Prior to the massive movement of food relief into the country, Afghans had the lowest caloric intake of any people in the world. Citing research conducted over the last few months, Natsios said failure of many fruit and vegetable crops has caused nutrient deficiencies in the population, resulting in conditions such as blindness and scurvy. Only 11 percent of people in the countryside have access to clean water, resulting in poor hygiene and further health problems.

"Over an extended period of time, this has taken an enormous, an enormous toll on peoples health," Natsios said, citing a study which revealed "a national nutritional crisis."

Rebuilding the nation's agriculture sector is a crucial next step in the aid effort, Natsios said. Eighty percent of all Afghans made their living from agriculture, either directly or indirectly before the country's plunge into chaos.

Food security and physical security remain "the primary concerns" of the relief community currently, Natsios said, but long-term needs must be met for Afghanistan to regain sustainability.

"Unless the agricultural system of the country is restored, the country will not come back to health," the USAID administrator said. "That's an economic reality, that's a nutritional reality. It's a reality of the markets and economy of the country."

The relief community is making strides to help rebuild the agriculture sector with a variety of initiatives. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) backed with USAID funding are involved in a number of projects in regions across the country to help get farms working again. The FAO announced May 30 that it has helped develop a code of conduct to be followed as these rehabilitation projects proceed. An FAO press release says the code is designed to ensure that short-term measures carried out in the face of emergency "should not jeopardize the long-term ability of Afghan farmers to achieve food self-sufficiency and establish export markets."

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a $15 million package of assistance grants May 30, a portion of which will be devoted to agricultural sector rehabilitation. "As well as rationalizing agricultural administration and service delivery, the goal is to address serious environmental problems of resource degradation," according to an ADB press release.

In the face of all their difficulties, Natsios said, "The people of Afghanistan are amazingly resilient." The USAID administrator's experience in humanitarian disasters, serving in both government and NGOs, dates back to the 1980s and he says the Afghan people have survived by virtue of "coping mechanisms more sophisticated than anything I have seen anywhere else in the world."

Natsios said he is disturbed that the United States is now the only food aid donor to Afghanistan. "Other donors had gone in. Now they have withdrawn their support," as the post-September 11 emergency appears to have eased. Natsios expressed hope that a greater balance in aid sources could be restored.

The United States has given more than $5,800 million in aid to Afghanistan in 2001-2002.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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