His Excellency M. Ehsan Zia thanks the people of Canada for their support in Afghanistan during a trip to North America.

The following is a statement he issued on the occasion of Human Rights Day on 10 December.

Kabul and Ottawa

Over the past 10 days I have had the privilege of traveling across this great nation in order to thank Canadians for their security and development contributions to lasting peace and democracy in Afghanistan. I have met with academics, government officials, students, business leaders and other Canadians, to explain the difference Canada is making, specifically to my Ministry, through which most Canadian development assistance is directed.

On this auspicious day as we commemorate Human Rights, My message from the 80% of Afghans who live in rural areas is that Canadian security and development assistance is having a real impact on their lives, particularly those living in the poorest and most remote areas of our country. Even before the Soviets invaded in 1979, our country was amongst the world's poorest, but over 23 years of near continuous warfare completely destroyed Afghanistan. At the time of the fall of the Taliban, only 9% of Afghans - mostly urban residents - had access to any kind of health care. Almost four million people had fled the country, there was no democracy of any kind, little development, and women were denied their basic human rights of access to education and employment. Our life expectancy at birth was, and remains, twenty years less than that of our neighbor Pakistan. We had effectively lost two generations through lack of education, and ranked in the lowest tier by many key development indicators.

Now, with the help of international partners such as Canada, we are laying the foundations for the future. Even though much work remains to be done, we are proud to have a democratically elected president and parliament for the first time in our history, 80% of people have access to basic healthcare, over 4000 km of highways and 9000 km of secondary roads have been built, 3000 of the estimated 10,000 destroyed schools in Afghanistan have been rebuilt, and over 6 million boys and girls are going to school. Critical first steps have been taken to allow women their rightful place at the centre of Afghanistan's social and economic life.

I am particularly proud of two Canadian supported grass-roots programs which fall under my ministry: the National Solidarity Program (NSP) and the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), for which Canada is the largest single donor. NSP has established a country-wide network of over 15,000 elected, self-governing community development councils which are currently implementing over 19,000 projects. The program empowers villages by putting block grants of up to $60,000 in their hands for community projects such as wells, bridges, schools, roads and health clinics. Villagers must be accountable for funds and include women in their decision making processes. Another program, MISFA, builds upon the Nobel-prize winning work of  Dr. Muhammed Yunus in Bangladesh, providing basic loans, often as little as $200, and financial services to the poor and vulnerable. Canada's to-date $50 million contribution to MISFA has allowed over 200,000 people, 75% of whom are women, to start new businesses, buy land, tools and farm animals, or make other investments.  Thanks in large part to Canadian support, both programs have become world leaders in building grass-roots democracy and economic self-sufficiency for the poorest and most vulnerable. We need to bolster and continue these programmes to create more opportunities and reach more destitute Afghans.

An important aspect of Canadian support is how that aid is being delivered. By using transparent mechanisms, your nation, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), is channeling its support through Afghan government institutions instead of building wasteful, and often counter-productive parallel structures. Your military-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams are also working with and through our government at the national, provincial and community levels to ensure government institutions are given credit by the people for basic service delivery. You are also emphasizing capacity building, helping build effective state institutions from the ground up. This approach is critical to long term peace building in Afghanistan because it reconnects the government to the people after decades of war and oppression, showing them that a democratically-elected government can work for them.

I was present several months ago when two villagers in Herat province were asked by reporters how they felt after receiving a grant through NSP. "We feel like citizens of this country for the first time in our lives," they responded. This comment is the most articulate expression I have heard to date of what we are trying to accomplish. 

Perhaps the most important sign of hope is the consistent determination of ordinary Afghans to put war behind them and rebuild their shattered lives. I was encouraged but not surprised by a recent BBC poll which showed that in spite of the recent violence, more than 70% of the population supports the government and has hope in the future. I see that hope every day, most recently when I visited Kandahar and met with the governor and local people. They spoke of last summer's Operation Medusa, when your soldiers responded to the pleas of local people and a formal request by the Afghan government, and launched a highly successful offensive against the Taliban, who remain bitterly despised by the vast majority of Afghans. Before the operation began, over 15,000 families evacuated their homes in the Panjwai District, not for the relative safety of nearby Pakistan, where they had fled during the reigns of the Soviets and Taliban, but to Kandahar, where they were absorbed by the local population. When the fighting was over, they returned to their homes - a remarkable display of confidence in the future. The people of the Panjawai voted with their feet, and that vote was for a democratic and prosperous Afghanistan.      

Our goal is to empower and train Afghans as quickly as possible so we can take care of our own security matters, but until our security services are properly trained and equipped, and our state institutions are able to function, without the continued support of international community we run the risk of once again becoming the victim of terrorist and other criminal elements and becoming a failed state once more. And a failed Afghanistan would be much more costly in the long run than providing basic security and aid support now. My message to Canadians is to remain committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan. Your aid dollars and the commitment and sacrifices of your brave men and women are having a real impact on the lives of some of the poorest and most deserving people in the world. The road will be long and difficult, but you are helping build a nation based on the principles of equality, social justice, and respect for human rights. You are putting the principles enshrined in Human Rights Day into action. You should be proud.