Too much aid to Afghanistan wasted, Oxfam says (Reuters)

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Too much aid to Afghanistan wasted, Oxfam says
Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:01pm EST

By Jon Hemming

KABUL, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Too much aid to Afghanistan
is wasted -- soaked up in contractors' profits, spent on
expensive expatriate consultants or squandered on small-
scale, quick-fix projects, a leading British charity said
on Tuesday.

Despite more than $15 billion of aid pumped into
Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled
the Taliban in 2001, many Afghans still suffer levels of
poverty rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa.

"The development process has to date been too
centralised, top-heavy and insufficient," said a report
by Oxfam.

-snip-

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
allocates close to half its funds to the five largest
U.S. contractors in Afghanistan.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSISL28902._CH_.2400