Global Policy Forum

By Dominic Nutt

On September 11 2001, Afghans weren't thinking about the twin towers, Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. Many were thinking about how to get their next meal.

Then, on the day the world changed, around 5.5 million Afghans were facing severe food shortages because of a three-year drought and more than two decades of war. It now seems a long time ago. Our innocence and optimism has since been shattered. Today, few people can be unaware of the threat of global terror. Even making a simple journey by tube or train is haunted by the prospect of attack by some shadowy force.

Things have changed in Afghanistan too. Now "only" four million people face severe hunger. This figure should still come as a shock to us, given that after the defeat of the Taliban, the leaders of the rich world promised to help drag Afghanistan out of the mire of poverty and starvation. Much of Afghanistan has the look and feel of a medieval society, dominated by feudal warlords, unconnected by any significant road system, reliant on hand-to-mouth agriculture and populated for the most part by rural peasants in isolated mountain villages.

You would not expect a country like this to change overnight. According to aid experts, it will take many years and a lot of money - perhaps as much as $15bn (£9.3bn). So far the international community has promised $4.5bn - to be delivered over the next four years. So far, $1.4bn has been handed over. But there are two problems that have seriously hampered efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.

First, two million Afghan refugees, who fled their homeland to Iran and Pakistan during the past two decades of war, have come home since the defeat of the Taliban - far more than anyone expected or planned for. And thousands more who deserted their barren fields during the three-year drought and travelled to feeding camps inside Afghanistan are also returning home to their villages, hoping that peace and rain will miraculously sustain them.

Sadly, that won't happen. Many of these refugees have no money. Their fields, which in some cases have been deserted for years, are barren. Their empty mud houses have deteriorated beyond repair. Few have enough money to repair their homes and start their lives again. With no infrastructure, no commerce or meaningful industry, there are insufficient jobs to be had - even for those with skills or an education.

However, most people cannot even read or write. So most of the money for aid, which was supposed to be spent on rebuilding a country shattered by war and desiccated by drought, is being spent on transporting and feeding returning refugees. Afghanistan is truly starting from scratch. A few facts (see below) give a flavour of how grim life can be for most people.

· Fewer than one in four Afghans have access to safe drinking water

· One in four children die before their fifth birthday

· More than three in five adults are illiterate.

But why should we care? Leaving aside the basic moral imperative, not helping Afghanistan will have a direct affect on people in the United Kingdom.

Around 80% of the heroin that ends up on the streets of our cities starts life in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. The price of wheat - the staple crop for most Afghans - has crashed because of all the food that has been delivered to the drought-stricken areas of the country.

Some farmers have found that in the past year the price of wheat has fallen from around 21p to just 4.5p per kilogram (2 pounds). Farmers I spoke to in mountainous and remote areas of western Afghanistan said they could raise 20 to 40 times more than this for a kilogram of raw opium. For farmers whose yields are down because of the effects of the drought and who can't get a decent price for the wheat they do grow, they have to somehow raise enough money to feed their families or having to rely on food aid.

Ironically, all the poppy farmers I met had only learned to grow poppies because of the drought. They had left their land and headed to Kandahar - the traditional opium basket of Afghanistan, to work as casual labourers in the fields. They the learned opium-harvesting techniques, saw that there was decent money to be made and took poppy seeds back home with them.

It is a sad indictment - and a challenge to agencies such as Christian Aid - that a teacher can earn more as a pieceworker in a poppy field they can in the classroom. This is why Christian Aid is helping to develop alternative livelihoods - helping communities to help themselves so that they don't need food handouts, which destroy the local economy, and so that farmers don't need to turn to opium production. For example, staff work with village communities to teach them how they can grow vegetables and other crops in difficult conditions. Often our Afghan partner organisations will back this up by building reservoirs and irrigation systems designed to supply water - even in drought conditions.

Ultimately, Christian Aid will not fund projects for communities that are growing poppies. The other reason we should be concerned about the plight of Afghans is the danger of new conflict. Even though the Taliban have been defeated, civil war and banditry continue. There are hundreds of thousands of weapons floating around the country and these prove a temptation to uneducated, hungry men schooled only on the ways of war. Fighting for a warlord or robbing other Afghans and aid workers can provide a living.

My colleagues and I were held up by bandits in the mountains and only escaped because one of our Afghan field workers knew the leader of the group. He had killed my colleague's cousin and, we think, he didn't wish to cause more trouble for himself. He left us alone and hijacked a passing lorry. War and violence, as we saw on September 11 2001, can be exported. On the other hand, prosperity can bring peace and stability. If you have a good job, money in your pocket and a full belly, it's less likely you'll want to risk your life as a mercenary, a bandit or a terrorist.

The Afghan agriculture minister, Hanif Atmar, sums it up well. "We need to look at alternative livelihoods. What do we do with the surplus workforce? Their only option is to take up arms. I know a former communist soldier who then joined the mojahedin and then the Taliban - that was his only means of employment. I asked him, can you do anything else other than fight? "He said he could drive - could I get him a driving job? If not he said he'd go back to his old commander who could feed him and clothe him.

"You have a population of professional warriors. They will do anything when they are poor and when someone is willing to pay them for their services. "Since September 11 2001, war in Afghanistan has been globalised. These people will find their way back to global terrorism. To turn your back on Afghanistan is to write your own suicide note."

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