US 'turning its back' on poverty

Clare Short visits a wheat store in Pakistan

The US is almost "turning its back" on the type of aid needed to alleviate poverty worldwide to prevent a repeat of the 11 September atrocities, International Development Secretary Clare Short has said.

She raised doubts over America's commitment to the kind of support needed to rebuild Afghanistan after the fall of the Taleban.

The only great power in the world almost turns its back on the rest of the world

Clare Short

She warned the Commons International Development select committee that failures of communication by the US military were hampering the aid effort in Afghanistan.

The US did not appear to share in the growing international consensus that action to alleviate poverty worldwide was needed to prevent a repeat of the 11 September atrocities, said Ms Short.

She told committee that it was a "paradox" that a country that prided itself on its generosity and was made up of people from all parts of the world gave only 0.1% of its GDP in international aid - compared to Britain's 0.3% and the United Nations target of 0.7%.

Institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had come round to the view that poverty alleviation in states like Afghanistan was needed to stop them becoming breeding grounds for terrorism, said Ms Short.

Pakistani workers take a rest on grain bags

But she told the committee: "The only great power in the world almost turns its back on the rest of the world.

"It is not that the US is ungenerous. It is just that it is not sharing the insight that other countries have got and it is very important that we try to get them there."

She added: "The suicide bombers of September 11 appeared not to come from poor countries, they came from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but the conditions which bred their bitterness and hatred are linked to poverty and injustice, there is no doubt.

"It is not something that excuses September 11, but it is part of the breeding ground for September 11."

'Historic opportunity'

The US atrocities had created an "historic opportunity" for the international community to make a concerted effort to try to solve global poverty and the despair it engenders, said Ms Short.

But she added: "Whether the US will do that ... I don't think we can see it as guaranteed."

Persuading America that international development was in its own self-interest, because it would help prevent future terrorism, was "profoundly important", said Ms Short.

'Moral influence'

But Britain's ability to exert a moral influence on the US was weakened because it did not meet the UN's target for aid itself, she added.

She indicated that she had been lobbying Chancellor Gordon Brown to bring the UK's state donations nearer to 0.7% of GDP in his upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.

Ms Short revealed that breakdowns in communication with the US military had led to problems for aid workers on the ground in Afghanistan.

She said: "The civil-military liaison is not working particularly well at all. The communications (with US military headquarters) are there, but they are not being taken seriously enough at a high level."

I don't think the US military is quite as informed, because it has not had the same experience

Clare Short

While aid organisations had built up good relationships with British armed forces after working alongside them in places like Sierra Leone, Ms Short said: "I don't think the US military is quite as informed, because it has not had the same experience."

The World Food Programme had ensured that sufficient food supplies were reaching Afghanistan, but aid workers' immediate need was for the stability and security which would be provided by an international military presence.

Reconstruction

Ms Short said: "We really need security to do the humanitarian job. We don't need the military to do the humanitarian job, but to do what they do best, which is to provide the security, so humanitarian workers can operate."

Among the key tasks in the reconstruction effort would be the removal of landmines and unexploded ammunition, which Ms Short acknowledged was made more urgent by the coalition's use of cluster bombs during the bombardment of Taleban targets.

And she said there was an "urgent" need for a transitional government representing all Afghanistan's ethnic groups to be set up, to prevent a repeat of the situation following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, when rival factions battled for power.

Government by the Northern Alliance was "unacceptable" and would not be allowed to happen, she said.

'Hundreds dead'

Ms Short said the numbers of casualties from the bombing in Afghanistan was estimated to be in the hundreds.

But she admitted that the figure was not well informed and did not include people killed by mines or those who have died from hunger.

Ms Short said the main route from Peshawar into Afghanistan has been reopened after being closed for a few days, so humanitarian aid is moving freely again, with 1300 tonnes of food transported into Afghanistan on Tuesday.