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India-Pakistan
Setbacks plague US aid to Pakistan
2011-01-22
Bet you never saw that coming.
LAHORE: A massive US aid programme that has made Pakistan the world's second-largest recipient of American economic and development assistance is facing serious challenges, people involved in the effort say, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The ambitious civilian-aid programme is intended in part to bolster support for the US in the volatile and strategically vital nation. But a host of problems on the ground are hampering the initiative, the Journal reported.

A push to give more money directly to local organisations and the Pakistani government has been slowed by concerns about the capacity of local groups to properly handle the funds. Some international groups have balked at new requirements, such as prominently displaying US government logos on food shipments, and have pulled out of US government programmes.

Anti-American sentiment in the nation continues to flourish despite the increase in spending, in part because of American drone attacks on tribal regions. A poll of Pakistanis in July by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre showed that two-thirds of respondents considered the US an enemy.

"Drone strikes cannot be justified because civilians are also killed in them, which further aggravates a tense situation," said Bacha Khan, a refugee from Bajaur.
Cancel the cash giveaway and step up the drone attacks. After all, our bad press can't get any worse.
Due to various problems, in the year ended September 30, the US spent only about two-thirds of the roughly $1.2 billion appropriated by Congress.
Goody -- by that much the deficit was less than anticipated.
US officials acknowledge difficulties distributing so much money, but say the shift in direction is needed. "Our goal here is to help the Pakistani government improve its capacity to deliver key public services," says senior State Department official Robin Raphel, US coordinator for economic and development assistance in Pakistan. "The object of the programme is quality, not to push money out of the door."

The US is eager to win support from ordinary Pakistanis to boost its prospects in the war in neighbouring Afghanistan and to counter the rise of extremism in Pakistan itself, a trend that officials say directly threatens America. In 2009, Congress agreed to spend even more in Pakistan, $1.5 billion annually for civilian aid, over five years. The first tranche of that money is being spent in the current fiscal year.

The ramped-up aid programme took shape at a time of instability for the US Agency for International Development, the aid arm of the US government. It lacked an administrator for about a year after Barack Obama took office. Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, named a special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan by Obama, died in December after ordering major changes to the way aid is distributed in Pakistan. US officials say his policy changes will continue. When Holbrooke took the job in early 2009, he was frustrated that all of the money the US was pouring into Pakistan hadn't improved America's image. In March 2009, he called a meeting in India of all aid officials involved in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Central Asian republics to outline how things would change.

"He thought everything we were doing was a failure," recalls one participant in the meeting.
So we agreed with Mr. Holbrooke on one thing at least...
Holbrooke decided to shift focus -- to give more aid directly to local organisations and the Pakistani government, and less to foreign non-governmental organisations that handled the bulk in the past. He also decided to publicise projects more aggressively to show ordinary Pakistanis that they are benefitting from US funds.

He started curtailing existing programmes handled by foreign contractors that he viewed as wasting money. Many of them involved less visible and harder-to-measure programmes such as initiatives to improve the justice system or local bureaucracies.
Run by surly European graduate students who drove white Toyota Land Cruisers.
He directed the aid instead to visible infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and dams, especially in the volatile tribal regions that border Afghanistan.

In all, USAID-funded projects involving foreign organisations worth almost $200 million have been scrapped due to the new strategy. Other projects were denied new money. In June 2009, for example, Holbrooke refused requests for an increase in funding from Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc, a contractor that was running a $46 million, three-year project to help train government workers in the tribal region. US officials say it is difficult for foreigners to monitor projects in the tribal areas because of the security risk of going there.
Any guesses as to whether the now unemployed Euro students are orchestrating the bad press?
Here's the original WSJ article.
Posted by:Steve White

#2  deduct aid money for every anti-US comment seen in the media.
a) it saves money
b) the rest of the populace will beat the shit out of whiny tools like Bacha Khan
Posted by: Frank G   2011-01-22 10:12  

#1  Anti-American sentiment in the nation continues to flourish despite the increase in spending, in part because of American drone attacks on tribal regions. A poll of Pakistanis in July by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre showed that two-thirds of respondents considered the US an enemy.

Oh, good. Let's throw even more at them and I'm sure they'll be our bestest buddies...
Posted by: tu3031   2011-01-22 00:33  

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