US-funded survey says Afghans are pessimistic

The number of Afghans who think they are more prosperous today than under the Taliban regime has dropped significantly over the last two years, a U.S.-funded survey released Tuesday found. More than half the Afghans surveyed in 2006 believed they were more prosperous than at any time under the hard-line Islamic regime's rule in the late 1990s. But only 36 percent of 6,600 Afghans surveyed this year felt the same way. The results mirror the deteriorating security and economic situation in the country, caused by both the Taliban-led insurgency but also a global rise in food prices that has had a severe impact on vulnerable Afghans. The level of violence in Afghanistan has increased steadily in the last couple of years, and the number of insurgent attacks in 2008 are 30 percent higher than in 2007, military officials say. "There is a clear trend toward greater pessimism over the last two years: the number of those saying that the country is moving in the right direction has decreased steadily since 2006, whereas the number of those who say the country is moving in the wrong direction has increased," the survey said. The survey was conducted by the Asia Foundation and paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. government aid arm. Security remains the single most important problem identified by Afghans, but worries over economic concerns rose sharply in the survey this year. The proportion of respondents identifying insecurity as the biggest problem fell from 46 percent in 2007 to 36 percent in 2008. With presidential elections less than a year away, some seven in 10 Afghans expressed confidence in the Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai -- welcome news for the president, who has been criticized for a lack of leadership and not being able to stamp out endemic corruption in his administration. The foundation said the survey was conducted in all 34 provinces and was the largest comprehensive opinion poll ever conducted in Afghanistan. Some 6,593 people aged 18 years and older were interviewed in person by a team of 543 trained interviewers between June 12 and July 2. The margin of error was 2.4 percentage points, it said. The survey found that "the most widely enjoyed amenity is the availability of education for children which is judged by 70 percent of respondents to be good." "Forty-four percent of respondents report improvements in access to schools in the last two years," it said. Some 6 million Afghan children, including 2 million girls, now go to school every year, one of the most remarkable success stories in a country hit daily by negative headlines because of rampant violence. During the Taliban's regime only 1 million boys went to school. Girls were banned from attending classes. Asked about the role religious leaders should play in political life, 69 percent of respondents said religious leaders should be consulted on political matters, while around a quarter said politics and religion should not mix. That number is up from the 61 percent in favor in the 2006 survey.