World Bank/ADB conference on reconstruction of Afghanistan
27 November 2001
ISLAMABAD--Oxfam International says that today's meeting to discuss the economic rebuilding of Afghanistan would be an instant success if the hosts, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, agreed to cancel their $38 million debt to the country.
"Wiping out Afghanistan's debt would be a fraction of what the war has cost us so far. And it would be a welcome gesture of commitment to the development of Afghanistan," said Oxfam spokesperson David Earnshaw.
"To talk about how to best help Afghanistan economically but not act to write-off its debt would be, at best, a wasted opportunity, and at worst, hypocritical," he said.
The debt write-off should be linked, in turn, to Afghan commitment to a strategy to reduce poverty run by a broad-based interim government.
Oxfam notes that Afghanistan also owes $10 million to the International Monetary Fund, which the agency said should also be written off.
Oxfam is arguing for a "multi-pronged" approach to Afghanistan that:
1. Establishes a broad-based, multiethnic provisional administration;
2. Addresses the needs of the people affected by the drought, the worst in 30 years;
3. Promotes peace at all levels, from the grassroots to the national;
4. Places priority on the reconstruction of the Afghan economy;
5. Highlights the improvement needed in the quality of life and status of women in Afghan society;
6. Supports the longer-term development objectives of Afghanistanís future provisional administration.
