Committees

Afghanistan: UK Government given red card by independent aid watchdog

24 November 2022

A new review published by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact reports that UK aid to Afghanistan has provided valuable support to the Afghan people, improving life expectancy and literacy over two decades. Significant numbers of women and girls have benefitted from UK funded programmes, enabling education and support for victims and survivors of gender-based violence, though the benefits of that progress may have been lost under the Taliban regime.

However, ICAI also state that the UK’s aid contributions failed to achieve their primary goal of building a viable Afghan state. ICAI’s review finds that the UK Government’s decision to prioritise its partnership with the United States led to some ‘poor choices’ on the use of UK aid, which contributed to the ‘ultimate failure of the international coalition’s state-building approach.’

While the review praises the UK’s humanitarian response to the intensifying conflict and a series of droughts from 2020, it found that ‘relatively little’ was invested in crisis prevention or resilience-building despite Afghanistan’s high vulnerability to conflict, natural disasters and extreme weather.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) reports to the International Development Committee’s ICAI sub-committee, chaired by Richard Bacon MP, who said:

“Aid workers in Afghanistan are to be commended on the effective work they have delivered through individual programmes. However, the long-term success of the UK aid programme in Afghanistan is in doubt as a result of the failure to secure a viable Afghan state.

“In our report from March, the International Development Committee urged the Government to step up to meet its moral duty to aid workers and to the people of Afghanistan, who for decades have been affected by the UK’s military and political interventions. This is a poor show.

“The independent aid watchdog, ICAI, rates the UK’s development assistance to Afghanistan as unsatisfactory in most areas. It has found that decisions to fund police or other security agencies were ill-conceived. ICAI states that in highly fragile contexts such as this, Ministers must consider the prospects of viable political settlements in the sustained belief of a successful transition out of conflict. This review demonstrates that individual UK aid programming can succeed, but Ministers must work out their priorities and direct UK aid to where it counts.”

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