Afghanistan Implementation Group Meeting - Closing Remarks

Mieko Nishimizu
Vice President, South Asia Region
The World Bank
Kabul, 14 October 2002

This has been a meeting where we, the development partners of Afghanistan, listened -- as deeply as we know how -- to the nation's leaders on their vision, strategy, programme of action, implementation to date, and plans to keep moving forward. A group of leaders in the government has set off on a learning process of social and economic transformation. A comprehensive "home-grown" programme of structural reforms is taking shape.

I will begin with the World Bank's bottom line: The quality of the programme is remarkable and excites us; it merits our intent to buy-in in principle as the creditor of last resort; and we look forward to our eventual ownership of the programme, which can only be gained through substantive and technical consultations where our best experts share their knowledge freely and gain further knowledge themselves from the dialogue with champions of positive change in Afghanistan.

I must note, however, that very little is known outside Afghanistan -- and perhaps even inside Afghanistan -- of this programme, and of the fact that the Government of Afghanistan is truly in the driver's seat. Frankly, I regret to have to advise that an image of Afghanistan broadcast in international media implies quite the contrary.

I therefore suggest a "homework" to my development partner colleagues, that we communicate urgently and relentlessly what we learned here back home in our respective capitals or headquarters. My staff and I will certainly do our part at the World Bank, starting with the report of this meeting to the Board of Executive Directors. Likewise, may I suggest to the Afghan authorities that the people of Afghanistan must be informed, and a good national communication strategy may be in order. However poor or illiterate, the Afghan people are highly sophisticated in their political awareness and debate. The knowledge, that their government is in the driver's seat, working hard to bring international assistance to realise their dreams, would surely guard against skepticism and keep a beacon of hope burning.

As I reflected on many issues being discussed throughout this meeting, my mind kept returning to what Justice Sutherland of the United States Supreme Court said, back in 1936. He said: "Rulers come and go; governments and forms of governments change; but sovereignty survives. A political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere. Sovereignty is never held in suspense."

The Government of Afghanistan has a contract with that sovereign will, to end "violence as a means of compelling the majority to submit to the will of a minority" and to reflect "the people's aspirations ... in an accountable government that delivers value on a daily basis", towards "a vision of a prosperous and secure Afghanistan." (National Development Framework, the Government of Afghanistan, April 2002) The international community also has the same contract with the sovereign will of Afghanistan. The singularly important outcome of this meeting, therefore, would be for the development partners of Afghanistan to align their assistance -- what we do, how we think about what we do, and how we work individually and collectively -- to the like-minded leadership of the Government of Afghanistan.

In May this year, I spent two weeks in Bhutan immersed in the lives of the Bhutanese people. Permit me, Ministers, to share with you some insights I gained into the depth of Nation Bhutan.

The Ninth Plan had just been completed. Conversations in chance encounters with villagers always led to the planning process they participated. I was struck by the fact that everyone I met without a single exception said they participated, with an obvious pride and a broad smile on their faces. I was also struck by a consistently sophisticated and "holistic" thinking about their development priorities, such as thinking about village electrification as a means to save time for investment in literacy. Most of all, I was struck by the strength of these people's "heart & mind" conviction in a national vision and strategy they share, their ownership of what is good for their community and the nation as opposed to their private interests, and their timeless patience knowing fully well that their country's resources are severely limited. Whether I walked in only several hours off the highway, or trekked one or two or three days into remote villages high up in the Himalayas, the conversations were always the same.

The confident voice and presence of these villagers gave me an insight into the very foundation that makes such a meaningful participation possible: trust in the leadership, because the leaders inspire, are credible, and reciprocate the trust in the people. Trust in the leaders, because they align strongly with the same vision out of the same inspiration, and are therefore naturally consistent in their words and actions. Trust in the government that works as a result, because it has a strong track record of serving the people's common interest, trusting them to make the most of available opportunities.

My knowledge of the modern history of Bhutan tells me that this mutual trust has been earned through decades of sheer hard work by the leaders and the people of Bhutan themselves. As such, I felt with all humility that this trust is to be valued and nurtured as the sovereign nation's precious jewel.

Why am I talking about Bhutan in Afghanistan?

Call it my Sufi sense, if you will, but I sense a common nature between the two peoples. In that supreme sovereign will of Afghanistan that has never been held in suspense and survived many thousand years of oft unspeakable hardship, I sense the same quality of uncommon strength, non-conventional wisdom and non-conformist perseverance. I sense that today's leaders of Afghanistan has begun a journey to build a lasting bond of trust between the people and their government, and that it will be a journey of their own choice, of their own making, towards a vision and destiny of their own.

As such, I realised that the National Development Framework of last April, and the National Development Budget for year 1381-82 tabled at this meeting, are to be regarded as an integral part of Afghanistan's national security strategy -- to assure, as much as is humanly possible, peace and prosperity for the sovereign people of Afghanistan.

I feel privileged that the World Bank has been invited to be a partner in that journey. Knowing, however, that the Afghan people have been disappointed by the outsiders frequently in her proud history, I also feel a great sense of urgency to deliver what is expected of us. I do hope you feel the same. And, if you do, I urge that we the development partners begin to work as a team with the Government of Afghanistan in the leadership, to make our whole greater than the sum of its parts. Concretely, therefore, I urge that we commit to:

• honour the National Development Framework as the benchmark for our own assistance strategy;
• engage in a substantive dialogue of mutual learning, aligned to policy and institutional reforms underpinning the National Development Budget; and
• use the preferred financing mechanism as set out in the Budget.

This meeting has given my staff and me a precious gift of inspiration, which will fuel and sustain us for a long time to come in out fight against poverty. We own nothing of such great value in our possession to offer to the Government and the people of Afghanistan as an appropriate gift in return. I present to you, instead, one of my favorite poems called "Ithaka" by C. P. Cavafy.

Ithaka
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare sensation
touches your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from those who know.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

I end my remarks with a favorite passage of mine from the Koran: "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves, with their own souls ..." I wish the people of Afghanistan well -- and all the good leaders of today, and of tomorrow, among them. Khuda Hafiz, from the bottom of my heart.