Project 627
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2011
- Messages
- 327
- Reaction score
- 0
ISLAMABAD: The United States has failed to demonstrate that a $7.5 billion civilian aid package approved for Pakistan in 2009 has helped address basic needs in the country like electricity, healthcare and education, said an inspector generals report.
The finding comes as some in the US have questioned the wisdom of lavishing Pakistan with financial assistance citing what they see as Islamabads reluctance to target terrorists based on its territory who regularly attack American troops in Afghanistan.
The massive five-year civilian aid package was meant to help stabilise the country and also prove the US was interested in more than enlisting Pakistans cooperation in fighting terrorists by supplying it with billions of dollars in military support.
But the largest contributor of civilian aid, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had not committed to a way to measure the success of its programmes, said the report released Monday which was written by officials at the USAID, the State Department and Defence Department.
We believe that the USAID has an imperative to accumulate, analyse, and report information on the results achieved under its programmes, said the report, which covered the period through December 31, 2010. One year after the launch of the civilian assistance strategy in Pakistan, the USAID has not been able to demonstrate measurable progress, it further said.
The mission director for USAID in Pakistan, Andrew Sisson, said it was premature to look for significant results since the new aid programme only started a year ago, but insisted the organisation was gaining momentum. We have programmes that have been launched and we have more on the books, Sisson added.
The report also found that the US Embassy in Islamabad had failed to come up with a core set of indicators to measure the success of all American development programmes in Pakistan run by the USAID, the state and defence departments.
One of the reasons the US has struggled is that the embassy in Islamabad has had difficulty staffing the positions it needs to monitor and run its programmes, according to the report. The USAID office at the embassy remained understaffed by more than 20 percent, or 68 positions, as of the end of 2010, the report added. ap
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
The finding comes as some in the US have questioned the wisdom of lavishing Pakistan with financial assistance citing what they see as Islamabads reluctance to target terrorists based on its territory who regularly attack American troops in Afghanistan.
The massive five-year civilian aid package was meant to help stabilise the country and also prove the US was interested in more than enlisting Pakistans cooperation in fighting terrorists by supplying it with billions of dollars in military support.
But the largest contributor of civilian aid, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had not committed to a way to measure the success of its programmes, said the report released Monday which was written by officials at the USAID, the State Department and Defence Department.
We believe that the USAID has an imperative to accumulate, analyse, and report information on the results achieved under its programmes, said the report, which covered the period through December 31, 2010. One year after the launch of the civilian assistance strategy in Pakistan, the USAID has not been able to demonstrate measurable progress, it further said.
The mission director for USAID in Pakistan, Andrew Sisson, said it was premature to look for significant results since the new aid programme only started a year ago, but insisted the organisation was gaining momentum. We have programmes that have been launched and we have more on the books, Sisson added.
The report also found that the US Embassy in Islamabad had failed to come up with a core set of indicators to measure the success of all American development programmes in Pakistan run by the USAID, the state and defence departments.
One of the reasons the US has struggled is that the embassy in Islamabad has had difficulty staffing the positions it needs to monitor and run its programmes, according to the report. The USAID office at the embassy remained understaffed by more than 20 percent, or 68 positions, as of the end of 2010, the report added. ap
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
