Afghan's development programmes suffer: WB

In a report reviewing Afghanistan's National Development Strategy (ANDS), Kabul's development plans for the next five years, the Bank pointed out that there is an urgent need for stronger prioritising of programmes.     

"Lack of coordination among donors has been a challenge for Afghanistan, and two-thirds of aid spending still happens outside the Government's budget and thus outside its control and ownership," said William Byrd, Economic Adviser.     

"There is an urgent need for stronger prioritising of programmes in the strategy. The policy measures need to be streamlined for decision-making, implementation and monitoring purposes," Byrd said.     

The national strategy, which covers the five-year period from 2008 to 2013 and was approved by President Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet on April 21, 2008, envisages a large increase in resources, vast majority in the form of donor assistance.     

With improved prioritising in the strategy, donors should be able to increasingly align their aid with the priorities of the government, the report said.     

"The strategy provides in many respects a reasonable basis for Afghanistan to move forward in addressing difficult development challenges," said Alastair J McKechnie, World Bank Director, Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group.     

"While there is a need for greater investment in Afghan, we need to look beyond the size of overall resource envelope and focus carefully on how this aid is spent and on how to increase the ability of the government to spend it effectively to produce demonstrable development results," he added.