Since July 2006, USAID has successfully completed over 1000 development projects and initiated 780 new projects at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan, according to outgoing United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Leon S. Waskin.

“The United States has a strong commitment to Afghanistan and we are honored to be a contributor to efforts to rebuild Afghanistan,” stated Mr. Waskin, whose term expired on July 16, 2007.  “USAID, along with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is working very hard to build a safe and stable society that meets the needs of the people of Afghanistan.”  In the past year, USAID has disbursed over $800 million to development efforts in Afghanistan; since 2002, USAID has contributed $4.4 billion to development initiatives in Afghanistan.

During Mr. Waskin’s tenure, USAID has worked with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and local communities to use these resources in ways that have significantly changed people’s lives in this country.  For example, customs revenue increased from $76.5 million in 2004 to $476.6 million in 2007.  The Kabul Industrial Park factories now employ more than 1200 Afghan workers, Afghanistan’s first commercial Agricultural Fair catalyzed much-needed investment in the agriculture sector, and the country initiated the first successful trade and export of high-quality processed fruits and vegetables in its history.

USAID continues to work with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and donor partners to provide facilities and textbooks to improve education quality and opportunities in Afghanistan.  Over the past year, USAID and DANIDA provided 11 million textbooks for MoE schools.  According to Mr. Waskin, the United States Government has provided a total of 59 million textbooks since the fall of the Taliban and has worked with the MoE to rehabilitate or construct over 670 schools.

As a result of five years of collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health, USAID, the World Bank, and the European Economic Community, infant and child mortality has been reduced by over 20%, and women’s access to prenatal care from skilled providers has increased by 600%.

Working with the Ministry of Public Works, USAID helped complete the 70 kilometer, $29 million road from Charikar through the Panjshir Valley, which has cut travel time from Kabul to the provincial center in half and is already bringing important economic benefits to the people of the valley.  In the past year, USAID has also helped complete eight canal-cleaning projects in Laghman, Kunar, and Khost provinces, generating work for hundreds of residents and providing more effective irrigation for this year’s growing season.

Following the terrorist attack on Kandahar province last summer, quick efforts were highly praised by President Karzai as USAID was the only donor capable of immediately moving development assistance to the Panjway and Zhari districts.  More than 20,000 families are now benefiting from seed and fertilizer distribution, 130 km of gravel road repair, $2.1 million in technical assistance for dried fruit and nut processing and vineyard repair, $2 million in livestock feed and veterinary services, and more than $600,000 on cash-for-work projects repairing canals, drains, floodwalls, culverts and karezes in the directly affected area. 

“USAID is only a part of a much broader program of assistance from the people of the United States to the people of Afghanistan.  The projects we fund are carried out by and implemented for the benefit of Afghans,” according to Mr. Waskin.  He stressed that the above accomplishments “are not achievements of USAID, or of the U.S. Government.  Rather, they are successes that have been achieved by the people of Afghanistan.  I am very proud to have been associated with them.”

Mr. Waskin introduced Robin Phillips the new USAID Mission Director for Afghanistan. An economist, Robin Phillips has been with USAID since 1984 and has served in many USAID missions around the world, most recently as Mission Director in Armenia.