Getting to a safer Afghanistan
Oxfam’s Paul O’Brien tells CNN that there is a powerful connection between the long-term development of Afghanistan and the stability of the country in the future.
December 2nd, 2009 | by Coco McCabe
Raima's family has been displaced many times during the years of conflict in Afghanistan. Soon after they returned to Kabul in 2003, her husband was killed in a suicide attack. Photo by Ashley Jackson/Oxfam
In his address to the nation on Afghanistan last night, President Obama said the US will support ministries, governors, and local leaders that deliver for the Afghan people and combat corruption. For many Afghan civilians, the cost of war has meant ever deeper poverty with half of Afghans impoverished.
“We just finished a survey that went all around Afghanistan, including the insecure parts, 700 people in places like Kandahar and Helmand. They said their top issue in terms of what’s driving the insurgency is poverty followed by the weakness of the Karzai government, the corruption in Kabul,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and advocacy, in an interview Tuesday with CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour.
“If we do development well and we do it for its own sake, we may well end up with a safer Afghanistan, which is for everyone’s benefit,” O’Brien added.
Watch the full interview here.
Comments
One Response to “Getting to a safer Afghanistan”
Join the discussion
Author
Coco McCabe
Coco McCabe is a former newspaper reporter who now writes for Oxfam America about its humanitarian work around the world.
See more posts from Coco McCabe
Greg Mortenson is doing this in Afghanistan as we speak. Read “Three Cups of Tea”: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time. Website is threecupsoftea.com
Prioritizing on Girls’ Education is one of the most encouraging and hopeful routes to stability and development.
I love O’Brien’s idea of “development for its own sake”. No ulterior National motives!