Afghan Drought - Cdn Inaction

- - - - - - THE DROUGHT - - - - - -

AFGHANISTAN: Millions face hunger as drought worsens, warns ChristianAid
.......2.5 million drought-stricken Afghans across much of the country have lost their crops and are facing acute food shortages, international aid group Christian Aid warned. Canada’s Solution: extended food aid to widows in Kabul.
.......An assessment carried out mainly in the northwest, found that many people have lost 70 to 80 percent of their rain-fed cropsfollowing too little rain last winter and spring. The drought is also acute in other parts of Afghanistan, like the southern province of Zabul. Local authorities in Helmand province had earlier appealed for urgent assistance for some 5,000 families who have been displaced by drought and recent fighting in the area.
.......Another 6.5 million people are likely to suffer chronic food insecurity due to the lack of rainfall this year, Christian Aid said.

Afghan Government, UN seek $43 million more for drought and conflict victims
to fund humanitarian relief for people affected by drought as well as families displaced by recent fighting in the country's south. This funding would supplement an appeal for nearly $76.4 million launched in July. Just over half of that money has been received so far.

Millions of Drought-Stricken Afghans Need 'Vital' Attention as winter nears

- - - - - - NEW CANADIAN AID ANNOUNCEMENT - - - - - -

Canadian cabinet minister makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
International Co-operation Minister Josée Verner announced $5 million for a program to help integrate women into local garden markets.
.......She also announced $14.5 million for a girls' education project involving the building of up to 4,000 community-based schools, setting up after-school programs and training about 4,000 female school teachers. Verner said she estimates that the project will benefit 120,000 schoolchildren.
BOTH PROJECTS ARE DESIGNATED TO FAIL:
.......$14.5M TO BUILD TARGETS FOR THE TALIBAN ?
.......$5M TO MARKET GARDEN PRODUCE FROM A DROUGHT-AFFECTED AREA ?

Long-term food aid continued for poorest of Afghanistan's poor in Kabul
Canada will continue to provide emergency food aid ($2.5 million) for widows in the capital of Kabul past a planned cut-off date of March 31, after widows planned an extraordinary protest against the phase-out of food in favour of job training. Training is a good idea in theory, but the women have conservative men in their lives who will block access to training, let alone a real job.
.......CARE has delivered the basic staples on CIDA's behalf since 1996. The aid agency is expected to continue offering job and skills training, but food rations will likely be handled by others, said the source.
ONLY IN KABUL - NOT IN SOUTH AFGHANISTAN WHERE THE DROUGHT IS MOST SEVERE

Canadian NGOs Refuse Southern Afghanistan
.......Meanwhile several Canadian NGO's have said they will not assist in reconstruction efforts in that war torn country because, they claim, it is impossible to keep their people safe when Canada's military is also involved in humanitarian projects. The NGO's say that when Canadian soldiers are nearby, reconstruction projects in the dangerously violent Kandahar region are on hold because of a lack of funding from the Canadian International Development Agency.
.......CARE and World-Vision say they have not and will not, pursue contracts with CIDA for work in Kandahar until the Canadian military focuses its efforts exclusively on security and policing efforts.

Travel restrictions slow development efforts in Afghanistan
.......But officials charged with delivering millions of dollars in Canadian aid are rarely allowed to venture beyond the heavily fortified compounds of the Kandahar airfield and the nearby provincial reconstruction team (PRT) base, which is located within Kandahar city itself. Local Afghan officials are often required to present themselves at the PRT to discuss projects.
.......When officials do get outside the base, there is little opportunity for interaction with locals.
.......Officials at both Foreign Affairs and Defence refused to discuss specific security arrangements for civilian staff in Kandahar.

- - - - - - CIDA IN AGHANISTAN - - - - - -

Canada's Afghan aid
While Ottawa's pledge of $1 billion in aid from 2001 to 2011 is generous, it pales in comparison to our military outlay.

Canada delivers emergency aid and reconstruction to Kandahar
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will provide nearly $5 million (4,400 tonnes of food) for emergency food aid for 12,000 vulnerable families from Panjwai and Zherai Districts, who were displaced by NATO from their homes during Operation Medusa.
To date, Canadian construction and rehabilitation include:
....... 1,290 kilometres of roads,
....... 6 bridges,
....... 2 Km of retaining wall,
....... 28 small irrigation projects,
....... 39 schools,
....... 3 health clinics,
....... 43 drinking water facilities and
....... 204 dug water wells with hand pumps.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS - IN FOUR YEARS

CIDA silent on Afghan projects
[ AUTHOR: Canada Research Chair of Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy at the University of Ottawa.]
....... As a professor who studies international development, I wanted to know if our aid money — tax money — is being well spent to help Afghans.
....... The information CIDA offers the Canadian public about its Afghan activities is incomplete and inaccurate. A comparison of CIDA's journalists-only project list and its public website shows that nearly every project has an inconsistency in its budget, timeline, or both. The public cannot know what CIDA plans to do with the $1 billion it plans to spend for Afghanistan this decade.
....... In July, I used the Access to Information Act to ask CIDA for the "monitoring, evaluation, and/or audit reports for each CIDA-funded project ... carried out in Afghanistan."
....... CIDA asked for 240 days — eight months — to divulge the monitoring, evaluation and audit reports for Canadian-funded aid projects in Afghanistan. Nothing in the Access to Information Act obliges CIDA to consult so widely or to withhold project results; the agency's officials do so by choice.
....... CIDA explained that in nearly all projects, Canadian aid money is channelled through international middlemen, such as the World Bank or the UN Development Program. The middlemen commingle CIDA's money with that of other countries, and when they do, CIDA refuses to divulge any monitoring, evaluation or audit reports without the agreement of those other countries.
....... CIDA has only three staffers in Kandahar, meaning it must turn to the middlemen, the same UN agencies Harper accused of being unaccountable.
....... The situation is galling for the Afghans, too. When Canada channels aid through the UNDP or World Bank, it is making a choice to prefer it over Afghanistan's government. Afghans are understandably annoyed by our politicians, who talk of "strengthening Afghanistan's governance," but who deny their government's priority to govern.
....... The Conservative government tells Canadians that we are at war in Afghanistan, not for reasons of belligerence, but for reasons of bringing development.

Harper defends slow pace of reconstruction work

- - - - - - THE TSUNAMI AND CIDA FAILURE - - - - - -

Scandal looming in promised $425 million for Sir Lanka tsunami victims that never arrived? April 20, 2005
....... According to veteran newsman Garth Pritchard, in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of last December’s tsunami, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is allegedly holding the $425-million.
....... Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Korea Maurice Strong, also a senior advisor to Prime Minister Paul Martin, was the founding president of CIDA.
....... "Through his creation and direction of CIDA, Strong controlled the implementation of aid programs on the ground--including who was hired to do the work, and through the newly-created IDRC (International Development Research Center), Strong controlled the issuance of tax deductible certificates and the distribution of both private foundation money as well as government money." (Henry Lamb, Maurice Strong, The new guy in your life, 1997).
....... Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin swigging from a bottle of purified water in Kalumai, Sri Lanka," wrote Canada Free Press in January, 2005. "The photo of a lifetime, eclipsed by free advertising for ZENON Environmental Inc." Martin’s mentor Strong has been a director on the ZENON board of directors since October, 2003.

What happened to our tsunami aid? APRIL 27/05
....... But even before DART was deployed, its soldiers knew full well they were being set up by the bureaucrats in Ottawa to fail. The Minister of External Affairs claimed they were the "wrong people, the wrong place." Otta-wa's Canadian Press joined the attack immediately. "Paper tiger" said Terry Pedwell's story. "Antiquated" wrote Stephen Thorne. These are two senior CP reporters. The president of CARE Canada showed journalists a bucket, an eyedropper and chemicals. "I can produce clean water for 27 cents a litre." He called the Canadians in Sri Lanka "amateurs," a cheap shot dutifully parroted by the Ottawa Citizen.
....... But from the day they arrived, the Canadian DART members were stymied in their simplest requests for basic items such as tents, water pumps, parts for boat engines, and fibreglass to repair the Sri Lankan boats. The DART asked CIDA for spark plugs, points, condensers, alternators and distributors to get the Sri Lankan fishermen back on the water. What we received instead were arrogant and nasty members of the non-governmental organization community, led by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
....... Four months later the bureaucrats in Hull are playing God, not just with taxpayers' dollars, but with donated money that came with no strings attached--windfall for CIDA and its contractors. Where is the $425 million? The NGOs and CIDA have an automatic response: "We're here for the long term." In other words, don't ask, because it's none of your business.

So, CIDA -- Where's the money? MAY 5/05
....... Neither the Canadian Padre nor Pastor Sunil had missed Canada’s Prime Minister’s promise of aid, however, as of last night, according to the pastor, not one penny of the promised Canadian money has arrived in the Ampara area.
....... We’ve seen this pattern with CIDA before. In my four-month stay in Kandahar, Afghanistan with the Canadian PPCLI Battle Group, CIDA had guaranteed $100,000 for humanitarian projects in Afghanistan. Captain Alex Watson had been charged with the administration of that money. He built five co-ed schools; had 11 wells drilled, BUT by the end of Watson’s tour, the contractors had not been paid-- CIDA’s money never arrived. Trying to make things right, the American military contributed 50 percent of the shortfall, matched by the Canadian Department of National Defence. We were all embarrassed by CIDA.

CIDA minister defends pace of tsunami spending June 23/05
Ottawa has disbursed a total of $159 million since the Dec. 26 catastrophe. That includes $36 million in emergency relief and $90 million to match aid-group donations that poured in from Canadians at unprecedented rates. In total, Ottawa has committed $425 million over five years.


Note: Angry senators allege ... AFGHANISTAN: Millions ... Afghan Government, UN ... Millions of Drought-St... Canadian cabinet minis... Long-term food aid con... Canadian NGOs Refuse S... Travel restrictions sl... Canada's Afghan aid Canada delivers emerge... CIDA silent on Afghan ... Harper defends slow pa... Scandal looming in pro... What happened to our t... So, CIDA -- Where's th... CIDA minister defends ...