AFGHANISTAN: Criticism of NGO de-registration

KABUL, 8 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Civic groups in Afghanistan expressed varying reactions to a decision by the government on Tuesday to de-register some 1,600 NGOs in the post-conflict country.

Some NGO groups complained that they had not been given time and support to go through the registration process. "The government has not been able to really process and facilitate the process of registration for the NGOs," Aziz Rafiee, managing director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSF), a local NGO forum of some 75 participants, said from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

However, some NGO umbrella groups were more positive about the move. "We see this process as at least a means to clean up the list of NGOs, where many 'briefcase' NGOs exist. In a way, it is a good step to clean up the list and then have a better look at those who are registered. As such we don't consider it negative," Anja De Beer, director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an organisation representing some 90 humanitarian NGOs, both national and international, said.

Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001 a lot of international donors went back to Afghanistan and there was plenty of funding available, say activists. "Some people registered as NGOs hoping to get funding and the vast majority of them never de-registered and remain on the list of NGOs. They had nothing more than a business card," De Beer explained.

Their comments came after Mohammad Amin Farhang, Afghan economy minister, announced that the licence of 1,620 national and international NGOs would be withdrawn as they had failed to re-register with the Ministry for Economy.

"Only 464 NGOs, including 165 international organisations, have registered with the Ministry for Economy, while the applications of 217 for registration are still under review," the minister added.

Many of the more than 2,350 NGOs - including 330 foreign ones - which had previously registered with the former planning ministry were not operational, the minister said.

The authorities issued a six-month deadline for re-registration in July, which ended on Monday. "Last June, when the new NGO legislation was adopted, there was also a requirement for the re-registration of all registered NGOs. It seems that this number of NGOs [1,600] either did not meet the deadline, which had been extended once or twice, or did not meet the re-registration requirements," De Beer noted.

The Afghan government has been unhappy that it has had little control over donor funds in the past, while foreign NGOs received the lion’s share of international assistance money. Donors had been reluctant to channel funds through the fledgling government, citing lack of capacity and corruption fears.

But this imbalance is set to change. “During the past four years, the government was only receiving 22 percent of world aid and the remaining 78 percent was disbursed through NGOs, but now the government would directly receive more than 60 percent of world donations,” Aziz Shams, spokesman for the finance ministry, said earlier in Kabul.

An international donor conference held in London last week pledged over US $10.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged country.

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