[Afghanistan] economy growing but poverty pervasive

From Reuters Alert Net

By Robert Birsel

KABUL, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Afghan stone mason Khan Mohammad says he hasn't had a proper job in three months.

Standing on a cold street corner in Kabul early on Friday, Mohammad and a few dozen other men are hoping to get a day's work.

"I've managed to get only two days as a labourer, not as a mason," Mohammad said. He was paid 180 afghanis ($3.60) one day and 200 afghanis ($4) the other.

He said he would wait all day in the hope someone would give him work and would only go back to his rented room where he lives with his wife and five children after dark.

"I have to sneak back after dark to avoid the shop-keepers I owe money to," he said.

Afghanistan's economy is growing, despite a stubborn insurgency in the south and east, but for many Afghans, such as Mohammad, life isn't getting any easier.

The International Monetary Fund said last month Afghanistan's economy was set to grow 14 percent in 2005/06, although that was likely to slow to 10 percent by year-end.

Good weather boosted agriculture last year. Construction also remains buoyant while inflationary pressures have eased, the IMF said.

"The economy has improved now if you compare with four years ago, but not enough to satisfy everyone," Minister of Economy Mohammad Amin Farhang, told Reuters in an interview this week.

The government says it is aiming for 10 percent growth annually over the next five years and has drawn up a plan -- known as the Interim National Development Strategy -- that sets out a range of development targets.

The plan will be presented at an international conference on Afghanistan in London at the end of the month, where Afghanistan is hoping to get promises of help on security and development.

POVERTY PERVASIVE

Afghanistan's international backers are likely to seek assurances on problems from drugs to security, to corruption and the government's capacity to handle aid properly.

Since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, $11.8 billion of aid has been disbursed, according to government figures, but many Afghans remain mired in poverty.

Even in Kabul, residents are plagued by power cuts while many of the city's roads are in appalling condition.

Only 13 percent of Afghans have access to safe water and 12 percent to adequate sanitation, according to the World Bank. Only 6 percent of Afghans have access to mains electricity.

"Poverty is pervasive," said Ameerah Haq, the U.N. secretary-general's deputy representative in Afghanistan.

"We've got about 6.8 million people who are chronically hungry ... We have about 53 percent of the population living below the poverty line, less than a dollar a day. These are daunting figures," she told Reuters.

A major problem is public revenue. Afghanistan has one of the lowest ratios of gross domestic product to domestic revenue earned, about 4.5 percent, Haq said.

The United Nations is recommending a two-pronged development strategy -- investment in infrastructure to take advantage of the country's position at the cross-roads of Asia and the Middle East -- and broad-based rural development.

"It requires a lot of economic stimulus to increase the amount of revenue but also to have external aid allocated in a way which allows growth from both sides -- one trying to bring in foreign income, the other saying the vast majority of the population are rural, so let's try and lift them up," Haq said.

Anja de Beer, director of an umbrella organisation coordinating the efforts of aid groups, said the lives of most Afghans had improved and parts of the government were doing a good job in defining policy and getting it implemented.

"There are still huge problems. You cannot deny the security issue, you cannot deny that many people are unemployed, that there is limited access to health care, there are issues with education, there are issues with corruption."

"(But) Afghans are so focused on moving forward ... so intent on making a better future, I think that gives cause for optimism," she said.