Challenges:
• Five years after the cessation of a 20-year conflict and several years of drought, Afghanistan remains one of the world’s poorest countries with an estimated per capita GDP of only US$315
• An intensifying insurgency obstructs development and promotes illicit activity
• The country’s most valuable export—opium—reinforces corruption and fuels the insurgency. Poppy cultivation rose by 59 per cent in 2006.
• The weakness of the country’s institutions has meant donor and popular frustration with the pace of delivery, leading some to move outside government channels, thereby further weakening the country’s nascent authorities.
• Life expectancy in Afghanistan, 44.5 years at birth, is at least 20 years lower than in neighboring countries.
• Infant and child mortality are among the highest in the world: in 2003 one out of five children were estimated to die before the age of five while the rate of maternal mortality was estimated to be 1,600 per 100,000 live births.
• Under a quarter of the population has access to an improved water source and only 12 percent have access to improved sanitation facilities.
• Illiteracy is extremely high, with stark provincial and gender disparities. According to UNESCO and others, up to 90 percent of rural women and 65 percent of rural men over 15 are illiterate.
• Current access to piped water infrastructure is among the lowest in the world at around 18 percent.
Examples of Impact:
• Around 90 percent of the population can now access primary health care.
• The share of women receiving prenatal care per year has increased from 5 percent in 2003 to 71 percent in 2006.
• Enrollment of children in grades 1-12 increased across the country from 3.1 million in 2002 to just over 5 million in 2006 (of which 1.75 million are girls).
• In a country where 99 percent of the population had no access to telephones in 2002, today there are more than 2 million telephones.
• The government has made community block grants available to democratically-elected community groups in about 17,000 villages.
• 4.8 million Afghans had returned to their home country as of September 2005—the largest refugee repatriation in history. An additional 840,000 internally displaced people had moved back to their areas of origin.
• Domestic revenues have increased substantially, growing at an average annual rate of 60 percent per year during 2002/03-2004/05 and rising from 3.2 percent of GDP to 4.5 percent in this period.
• Fiscal discipline has been strictly enforced and maintained, notably through control over the government wage bill.
• Budget execution has improved: most civil servants are now being paid—and paid on time.
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