Jawad: Frustration that political participation has not led to results

From Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said T. Jawad, in a CFR interview today:

"From the entire financial assistance that's been given to Afghanistan, only 5 percent has been given to the Afghan government. Twelve percent of the funds have been given to the Afghan reconstruction trust fund established for Afghanistan. And we can withdraw money under certain conditions. The remaining 82 or 83 percent of the assistance has been spent outside the budget and control of the Afghan government. MORE

Photo: CFR

This is a problem. First, there is a waste in the way the money has been spent in Afghanistan, like many other places. Second, while we are building a political system in Afghanistan by encouraging the Afghan people to participate in that process—86 percent of Afghans participated in electing their president, we have a parliament in place in Afghanistan—yet at the same time, the government and the parliament have not been given the financial resources to address the needs of the Afghan people.

The people are saying, “We have played our part, we've played our role. You've asked us to participate in the political process, we did. But we don't see visible improvement in our daily life.”