What we can achieve in Afghanistan

So far, the program has reached more than 19 million Afghans in 34 provinces, with grants averaging $33,000.

Development owned by the community can survive amid conflict: When an NSP-funded school was attacked in August 2006, the villagers defended it.

The community councils also help build co-operation among villages and with the government.

Fourth, while local progress matters, government responsibility and capacity must be built at the national level.

Currently, two-thirds of aid to Afghanistan flows outside the government because donors lack confidence in its competence and transparency.

But this undermines those trying to build legitimate Afghan institutions.

It can also grossly distort resource allocation: Some relatively secure areas are starved of money when they could be producing results.

We can work with Afghans to strengthen public financial management.

That said, in the absence of strong institutions, and facing considerable corruption, good results have been dependent on one-by-one partnerships with honest, reformist ministers. The new cabinet must include more such individuals.

Fifth, Afghans need to see measurable improvements to their lives, or they will not feel they owe anything to Kabul or local governments.

There are success stories: More than 12,000 miles of all-weather rural roads have been built, connecting communities to markets; today, 80 percent of Afghans have access to basic health services, compared with only nine per cent in 2003; six million children are enrolled in school, nearly 35 per cent of whom are girls, compared with about one million students and no girls seven years ago; competitive telecommunications networks now serve about 10 million subscribers. But a lot remains to be done.

Stability in Afghanistan also depends on good leadership — especially in critical areas that have lagged behind, such as agriculture, energy, mining and private-sector development.

The challenges of securing development so that it is self-sustaining are formidable.

But progress is possible if safety is strengthened, the Afghan government assumes ownership, its partners build development through the choices of the Afghan people, and Afghanistan’s neighbours decide they are better off with a successful state than with a perilous buffer zone that could send trouble back across their borders.

Zoellick is president of the World Bank Group. Article was previously published in the Washington Post.