US cuts aid projects in Pakistan

Just a day after Pakistan’s parliament unanimously approved new guidelines for the country’s reengagement with the United States, a top US aid official said on Friday that Washington was drastically reducing the number of aid projects in Pakistan as part of reforms aimed at “improving the distribution of billions of dollars in funding”.
According to media reports, Rajiv Shah, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said the total amount of civilian aid will remain the same, but the US hoped the reorganization will produce better, higher profile outcomes that can win hearts and minds in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant.
The move comes over two years after the US launched a five-year, $7.5 billion civilian aid program in Pakistan that supporters hoped would improve the perception of America, elicit greater support from the government in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida and reduce the allure of those groups to average Pakistanis. The vast majority of aid before that went to the military.
Despite spending $2.6 billion in civilian aid, popular support for the US has actually fallen as relations between the two countries have deteriorated, and elements of the Pakistani government are widely believed to have continued backing Islamist militants killing American troops in Afghanistan.
Experts have criticized the aid mission for lacking clear goals and for not providing enough information about how the money is spent. The dominant narrative in Pakistan is that the funds have done little to help average citizens — a message the US has tried to counter.

Shah said the US has done much more in recent years than it receives credit, including providing medical training that saved the lives of an estimated 30,000 children and working to ensure that 900,000 kids were able to attend school.
But he said the US had also tried to do too many things at once in the country, which hindered results and made it more difficult for Pakistanis to see the benefits.
He did not name specific programs likely to be cut. But he said the US is working to cut the number of projects from a high of over 140 to around 35 by the end of September in five key areas: energy, economic growth, health, education and stabilization of Afghan border areas.
“If we are trying to do 140 different things, we are unlikely to do things at scale in a way that an entire country of 185 million people can see and value and appreciate,” Rajiv told The Associated Press in an interview in Islamabad. “We are just far more effective and we deliver much more value to American taxpayers when we concentrate and focus and deliver results.”
Shah said another potential benefit of concentrating the focus of the aid mission is that it could give the US greater leverage in pressing the Pakistani government to undertake necessary reforms, especially in the energy sector, which Washington has made its top priority.
“You can only be effective at direct engagement with Pakistani leaders if you say, ‘Look we are big enough and important enough to your energy sector that we should have a real policy dialogue and make sure you are continuing to make these very tough reforms,’” said Shah.
Some American lawmakers have called for aid to be halted unless Pakistan improves its cooperation fighting Islamist militants. These calls were especially loud after Osama bin Laden was discovered hiding in a Pakistani garrison town last May.
The US has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid but has kept civilian assistance flowing.
Shah said it was in US interests to continue providing civilian aid because it would help foster a more stable and prosperous Pakistan, making it a less fertile breeding ground for Islamist militants who threaten America.
“Our logo and our tagline says ‘From the American People,’ but in reality this work is very much for the American people,” said Shah. “We are safer and more secure … when countries are prosperous and when countries trade with us instead of represent a militant threat.”
Earlier in the day, State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, “Washington seeks a relationship with Pakistan that is enduring, strategic, and more clearly defined. We look forward to discussing these policy recommendations with the Government of Pakistan and continuing to engage with it on our shared interests.”