AFGHAN QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG WORLD'S LOWEST, BUT 'UN' ALSO FINDS POST-TALIBAN PROGRESS

By Carlotta Gall, International Herald Tribune, 02/23/05

Three years after the United States drove the Taliban out and vowed to
rebuild Afghanistan, the war-shattered country ranks 173rd of 178
countries in the United Nation's 2004 Human Development Index, according
to the new report. It was trailed by only five countries in sub-Saharan
Africa: Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.

The survey, "National Human Development Report: Security With a Human
Face," was released Monday in Kabul, the Afghan capital. It is the first
comprehensive look at the state of development in the country in 30 years.
In addition to ranking Afghanistan in the development index for the first
time, the report warned that it could revert to anarchy if its dire
poverty, poor health and insecurity were not improved.

"The fragile nation could easily tumble back into chaos," concluded the
study's authors, led by Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, the report's editor in
chief. "The basic human needs and genuine grievances of the people, lack
of jobs, health, education, income, dignity and opportunities for
participation must be met."

Despite the problems, the report said Afghanistan had shown remarkable
progress in the three years since the U.S.-led war started in 2001. More
than 54 percent of school-age children are enrolled, including four
million high school students. The economy is making great strides, with
growth of 16 percent in nondrug gross domestic product in 2003 and
predicted growth of 10 percent to 12 percent annually for the next decade.

While there has been rapid progress, said Zephirin Diabre, associate
administrator of the UN Development Program, the country has a long way to
go just to get back to where it was 20 years ago. The figures, as
President Hamid Karzai says in the report's introduction, paint a gloomy
picture.

Average life expectancy for Afghanistan's 28.5 million people is 44.5
years, at least 20 years lower than that of neighboring countries, the
report said. Ambassador Christopher Alexander of Canada, whose government
helped pay for the report, said that illustrated Afghanistan's
post-conflict predicament and the prevalence of poverty.

One out of two Afghans can be classified as poor, and 20.4 percent of the
rural population does not have enough to eat, getting less than the
benchmark of 2,070 calories a day. More than half of the population has
suffered from the effects of a prolonged drought, the report said.

One-quarter of the population has at some time sought refuge outside the
country, and 3.6 million remain refugees or displaced people.

Most glaring are the inequalities that affect women and children, still
some of the worst social indicators in the world today, said Alistair
McKechnie, country director for South Asia at the World Bank, which
financed the report with the Canadians and the United Nations. One woman
dies from pregnancy-related causes about every 30 minutes, and maternal
mortality rates are 60 times higher than in industrialized countries, the
report said.

One-fifth of children die before the age of 5, 80 percent of them from
preventable diseases, one of the worst rates in the world. Only 25 percent
of the population has access to clean drinking water, and one in eight
children dies from a lack of clean water.

Afghanistan now has the worst education system in the world, the report
concluded, and one of the lowest adult literacy rates, 28.7 percent.
Annual per capita income was $190 and the unemployment rate was 25
percent, said Hanif Atmar, the minister of rural rehabilitation and
development. "Obviously this is a warning," Atmar said of the report. "It
shows why we are poor, how and in what way we can solve this."

The success of Afghanistan depends on improved security, political reform,
broad-based economic development and the gradual elimination of poppy
production, McKechnie said, adding that failure in any of those areas
would imperil the reconstruction of the country and the living conditions
of the people.

The report and its donors emphasized that attention must be paid to
helping the nation's poorest people if Afghanistan is to be lifted out of
its dire poverty and persistent instability.