International Planning Conference for the Empowerment of Afghan Professionals

Held at Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, New Jersey
October 3 - 5, 2003

This conference was sponsored by the Society of Afghan Engineers and Stevens Insitute of Technology. It brought together cabinet ministers from the Afghan government, professionals and scholars with the goal of discussing Afghanistan's current situation and what steps could be taken to improve the situation.

Key to this discussion was the responsibility placed upon professionals of Afghan descent - both those in the country and those residing outside. These are some of my abridged notes which highlight a few of the important points made. For a complete overview of the conference go to the Society of Afghan Engineers site. It will soon be updated with conference notes

"The country has witnessed a scope of destruction that has resulted in total devastation. The financial resources are non-existant. The financial estimate for rebuilding is $50 - $100 billion over the next ten to twenty years. The current rebuilding efforts by the international community are a fraction of what is needed. Major public works projects need to be done.

"Reconstruction efforts have faiiled due to NGO's, which have proven to be inefficient. It is better to funnel aid through the government to strengthen its authority.

Priorities

"Sustainable capacity goals must include rehabilitating existing institution's technical capacity to operate. Civil service actions must be streamlined and a safe environment must be provided. There is no template to follow from elsewhere in the world but some guidelines can be used. The first is the empowerment of Afghan professionals.

"There are three catagories of professionals: those trained in Afghanistan but unable to practice there due to war, those without proper education nor experience such as those graduating during the war years and those outside the country with both proper education and experience who could return (if persuaded) to Afghanistan in order to help with rebuilding.

" The development process can only occur from within and the government must be empowered so that they can carry out their responsibilities"

Professor M. Ishaq Naderi
Jay Gould Professor of Economics, New York University
Senior Economic Advisor to President Karzai

"Economically, Afghanistan is a broken country. In 1978 the per capita income was $278; now, after 23 years of warfare, the per capita income is $170. So the question is how to build Afghanistan economically.

"The difficulties facing the country are many: the country is not yet secure, the government is only just starting to develop itself and its scope does not extend to the entire country. On the positve side, Afghanistan has re-absorbed three million people back into its borders and this has been done without starvation. The other positive thing is students have returned to school.

"Afghanistan's wealth is outside of the country, this wealth is in the form of knowledge, people and finance. Its wealth is in the form of those individuals who have left the country, have become highly educated and have done well financially.

"The country cannot count on economic aid from other countries.Approximately $4.5 billion in foreign aid has already come into the country. But this is a very small amount compared to what is needed and the percentage of that money that goes to NGO's (non-governmental organizations) lessens the amount that goes directly into the economy.If this amount were just brought into the country and spent, this would translate into more economic activity.

"This foreign aid will not continue. Afghans themselves must rebuild the country.

"Getting people to return to Afghanistan is a key issue. Within the country the number of people who can help with rebuilding and economic recovery is very small. A rough survey showed there are only about 250 - 300 individuals remaining in the country who are highly educated. In terms of capacity the Minister of Higher Education is working to restructure the educational system, but this will take ten years to complete.Therefore, the role of the experts is crucial.

The Process of Economic Growth in Afghanistan

"A key missing ingredient is the fact there is no economic recovery plan in effect.Elements of an economic plan should involve the government establishing a clear set of guidelines on how to restructure in the next 2-3 years, and then continue from there. Currently the country has a simple economy. Most of the exports, knowledge-base and population is involved in agriculture. So it is critical that assistance be provided to this sector to avoid unemployment which would drive large numbers of people into the cities and result in huge slums.

"Afghans do not have houses to live in. One economic project should involve housing projects as a method of jump-starting the economy.

" It is important to allow the private sector to become strong. Don't regulate this sector at first. To reiterate an earlier speaker's phrase, ' Private capital is a coward.' Governments do not build economies, In other words, the private sector should be allowed to grow without government regulations that would stifle this growth.

" There are opportunities for Afghanistan if these economic problems are solved. Historically, Afghanistan has always been the crossroads of trading routes. If the reverse could be achieved Afghanistan could become the hub of this area of the world. This can be done utilizing the resources of the country: its human knowledge and human capital. Afghans must be encouraged to return.

"Because of the current situation and the forces of negativism being so strong within the country Afghanistan could collapse and this must not be allowed to happen.

How to do this

"Regarding the security issue, I do not feel insecure in Kabul. I feel as secure in Kabul as I do in Manhattan. In other words, the security issue is exaggerated.

"Returnees need to be paid more, and part of aid monies needs to be utilized for this so they can meet their financial obligations and return to Afghanistan.

"Another possible solution is to consider to approximately 600,000 Afghans living outside of the country, excluding those in Pakistan and Iran. Of these, five out of six are not financially qualified to help, leaving 100,000 individuals who are qualified to donate, for example, $1,000 each. This would be a fund of $100 million which could be used for economic recovery.

" In conclusion, Afghanistan has many high mountains which contain vast mineral resources. Until one brings the talent back into the country the wealth contained in these mountains will never be tapped."

Honorable Sherief Fazez
Minister of Higher Education


"Our job is to build a bridge between a ruined Afghanistan and a developed Afghanistan. Currently we have 1,666 teachers. Most of these have bachelor degrees, few have PhDs. The University of Education is now in partnership with five Japanese universities - so our University of Education is a teacher clinic. [photos of the University of Education and an organizational chart of the Ministry of Education were shown.]

"Administratively there are 300 people in our ministry. This is the largest segment of the ministry. We want to establish two more departments - one for community colleges, one for private schools. The other section of the current ministry is Academic.

"Currently there is a serious problem with a bloated administration and some corruption. These 300 people in the administrative section need to be cut out. (There are currently 250,000 people in the government's administration, this is too big. The job can be done with 50,000 individuals.)

Higher Education Statistics

"There are 19,000 students enrolled in higher education facilities in Kabul. There are nine universities, one polytechnical school and one medical school with 5,000 students. There are eight engineering institutions. In the provinces the schools have no infrastructure (i.e. no buildings).

"A problem inherited from the Taliban was the large number of medical students enrolled in the medical school. (Enrollment in medical school was one of the few things the Taliban allowed, thus there were many enrollees.Many of these students did not have proper certification.) The Public Health Ministers says there should be no more than 660 students enrolled. In other words, there are too many students.

"The Ministry of Higher Education has a very small operating budget - about $7 million. One problem with international donors is higher education is not a priority, so little international assistance is going to this area, in spite of the obvious need for educated persons for the rebuilding of the country. Most schools in Kabul, except the polytechnical school, have been rebuilt. Germany had a major role in this, also the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) and the U.S. Army.

"The strategic plan is to revive the old linkages with foreign universities which the country had in the past. Partnership with Germany has been the most successful; the United States has helped somewhat with rebuilding but not funding higher education programs.

"During the Taliban regime there were no female students enrolled in schools, currently there are 8,000 female students in upper education programs in the country.

"One problem we're facing is unqualified teachers. A lot of emphasis is being placed on distant-learning centers. This involves linking, via computers, with universities abroad to facilitate our curriculae.

"The Ministry of Higher Education cannot afford to have free higher education at this point. Seventy percent or our budget goes to feeding students. USAID is not helping with teacher's educations. Next year American University will open, a private college, and another medical university will open soon."

Mr. Wahid Omar
Educator, Afghans4Tomorrow

"Primary and secondary education in the country is a complex issue. There are no reliable figures as to the number of school-age children in the country. Another factor is the number of displaced persons and refugees. There is no prediction for where the educational demands will occur due to this factor.

"The last cohert of graduated students in the country are now in their '40's. Thus you can see the majority of the population has had no education or limited education. There is a huge demand for educational services. One example is the high number of former soldiers, many of them very young. It is difficult to re-integrate them and if this is not done they return to the warlords or to banditry.

"Those between the ages of 12 - 30 are the 'lost generation' .

"These are my impressions of the situation in Afghanistan, based on my observations:

1. $15 billion is needed for the next 10 years in order for the country to be at the standard it was at 23 years ago,
2. The Ministry of Education is no an exception to corruption. There is lots of bureaucracy in the system.
3. New laws put in place make the government the overseer of school projects, and due to corruption and bureaucracy money and projects sometimes do not get off the ground due to red tape.
4. More security is needed in the country. More peacekeepers are needed
5. There is a lack of professionals."

Arline J. Lederman Friedman Ph.D.
Director, Char Chatta Foundation

"In terms of hard currency, more than 30% derives from crafts exports, in part from expert craftswomen. Thus, one can see handcrafts are part of the hard currency of the country. Income from crafts can reach, economically, 50% of the population - and these 50% cannot be reached in any other way.

History

The contribution of handicrats to the Afghan economy is matchless. Afghan women are the backbone of this. This craft system is currently under threat due to various factors:

1. The age-old tradition of passing this skill from generation to generation has been lost due to thepast 23 years of warfare.
2. Tribes have become mixed due to war and relocation and the distinct visual vocabulary of each tribe has become lost..
3. The change to factory-produced crafts has resulted in a loss of richness and variety with a shift to a quick profit.
   

It is important that the rich heritage of the ancient crafts of Afghanistan not be lost.

Proposed Project

The project is to start a living museum in Kabul, to recreate the Char Chatta Bazaar (the 3,000 - 5,000 year-old bazaar along the ancient silk trade route). This would serve both as a respository of the crafts of Afghanistan, including the production of rugs, and also house working artisans and provide a venue for tourism. This projeect was proposed earlier, prior to the Soviet takeover, and due to warfare was shelved. It has been reconsidered and is being financed by several international groups."