Afghanistan's Reconstruction Undermined by UN Salary Increases

CARE
Tuesday, 14 May 2002

Non-governmental agencies call on the United Nations, Donors, Embassies and the World Bank to keep salaries in check

In a statement released today, non-governmental organizations called on the international community to stop undermining Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts by raising their salaries.

"Afghanistan reconstruction must be led by its government and Afghan civil society," says Ian Purves, executive coordinator of ACBAR, an NGO coordination body. "The international community should be strengthening the capacity of government and Afghan civil society. Instead they are robbing that capacity through salary increases that attract Afghan staff from the government and local NGOs to the higher paying international agencies," says Purves.

Last December, 2001, the head of the United Nations Development Program, Mark Malloch-Brown committed the United Nations to an "expat light operation with outsiders playing key backroom roles." The UN must "ensure that the salaries our organizations offer to Afghan nationals do not draw them away from government service," Malloch-Brown stated.

"It is time that the action matched the rhetoric," says Anita Anastacio of Mercy Corps. "The UN now has more than 500 expatriates in Afghanistan and thousands of Afghan staff. They recently raised salaries for their Afghan staff by about 60 percent, despite a direct request not to do so from the Afghan government. This kind of decision hardly fulfills the UN promise to leave a 'light footprint' in Afghanistan."

Most civil servants in Afghanistan earn approximately $30 per month plus food. An entry level driver at the United Nations can expect to earn more than 10 times that salary at $327 per month plus benefits.

The UN claims its wages are tied to the salary scales of donors and other international agencies. Certainly the UN is not the only entity at fault. Recently, the U.S. embassy advertised drivers' positions at $570 per month. The U.S. Embassy claims that its pay scales are tied to those of the UN. Neither, however, is tied to government pay scales or the actual cost of living.

"We must keep in mind the long-term impact of what we are doing here," says Eric James, country director of Relief International. "Increasing these salaries widens the gap between rich and poor, squeezing those who already have the cards stacked against them."

NGOs are calling for the following:

- Donors, the UN and the World Bank should find ways to reduce the gap between their salary scales and those of the government and Afghan civil society.

- All international agencies working in Afghanistan should freeze salaries for a defined period. Specifically, the United Nations should not implement the recent pay raise approved by the International Civil Service Commission.

Employment guidelines should be implemented immediately to ensure, among other things, that mandatory notice periods are respected, and government and NGO staff is not hired into lower level positions that demand lower skills and responsibilities.

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