President Obama’s review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan revealed widespread failures in development aid programs, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before a United Nations conference today in The Hague.
There’s been “very little credibility for what’s already been invested,” Clinton told reporters yesterday en route to the Netherlands. “A lot of these aid programs don’t work.” The new U.S. approach involves “looking at every single dollar as to how it’s spent, and where it’s going, and trying to track the outcome,” she said.
The one-day summit on Afghanistan will be an opportunity to share those findings with 72 other nations and more than a dozen international organizations, and discuss how each can contribute more effectively to development and anti-terrorism efforts, Clinton said.
Obama wants to push back against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan that threatens to undermine efforts to create a stabile government able to secure its territory and improve the economy and living standards.