How to keep the fragile peace in Afghanistan, where ambitious warlords still vie with one another for power? Reward the warlords who support the new Afghan government of Hamid Karzai--and punish those who don't. That's the approach recommended by Mark Malloch Brown, the U.N.'s point man on Afghanistan's rebuilding. The new $15 billion reconstruction fund that the U.N. and other agencies are assembling is "the key economic resource that can either make or break the peace," Malloch Brown maintains.
Fortunately for the 48-year-old U.N. bureaucrat, he won't have to distribute the money himself. It will be up to Karzai to "make deals" so the U.N. "in a smart way can direct assistance to parts of the country doing well," he says. But Malloch Brown has to wrest financial commitments from governments. And his agency, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), is working closely with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to target Afghanistan's most pressing needs, from clearing mines to helping farmers plant crops--not poppies. In fact, Malloch Brown sees Afghanistan as a pilot project in coordinating aid from the U.N. and other agencies that have often worked at cross-purposes. "It's part of my mandate to stop the civil war between the international financial organizations and the U.N.," he says.
Of course, major setbacks could occur. But at least the articulate, South African-born Malloch Brown has a fighting chance. Educated at Cambridge University, the former journalist, consultant, and World Bank spokesperson has worked with politicians and executives from Brasilia to Bangkok. As UNDP administrator since 1999, he raises $1 billion a year for programs to promote democracy, fight poverty, or aid refugees. For Brown, Af-ghanistan is just one front in a war that never ends.
By Rose Brady in New York
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Copyright 2002 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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Fortunately for the 48-year-old U.N. bureaucrat, he won't have to distribute the money himself. It will be up to Karzai to "make deals" so the U.N. "in a smart way can direct assistance to parts of the country doing well," he says. But Malloch Brown has to wrest financial commitments from governments. And his agency, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), is working closely with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to target Afghanistan's most pressing needs, from clearing mines to helping farmers plant crops--not poppies. In fact, Malloch Brown sees Afghanistan as a pilot project in coordinating aid from the U.N. and other agencies that have often worked at cross-purposes. "It's part of my mandate to stop the civil war between the international financial organizations and the U.N.," he says.
