Afghanistan Aid Squandered, Charity Says

The US approved another $6.4 billion in aid for Afghanistan this year, but a leading charity says too much development funding is being wasted on short-term quick fixes. An Oxfam assessment attests that "non-Afghan resources" and "high expatriate salaries and living costs" are soaking up aid, leaving Afghanis mired in poverty, Reuters reports.

"The development process has been too centralized, top-heavy and insufficient," the report says. Moreover, more than half of all American aid to Afghanistan goes to private contractors, not to the Afghan government, entrenching the situation and keeping local institutions weak. Kabul's cost of living is extremely high: Supporting a foreign consultant there can cost up to half a million dollars annually. (More Afghanistan stories.)