According to Jim Williams of UNESCO, foreign artists, specialists and NGOs working in the cultural field should send proposals, including funding details, to the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs’ Planning and Foreign Relations Department. Its Director, Farid Haidari, can be contacted by E-mail at frd_moic@yahoo.com. Proposals will be studied and forwarded to the proper authorities. In theory this should ensure that duplication of efforts and funds do not occur. However, the needs of recipients should be studied very carefully beforehand, in order to avoid the recurrence of problems such as the largely inappropriate or outdated foreign book collection donated to Kabul Central Library.

In interviews, leading artists and administrators have noted that many promises of overseas help have not materialised. This may in part be due to poor translation or excessive expectations on the part of the Afghan recipients. A humorous translation of the plans of the Deputy Minister responsible for libraries to ‘repress books’ should have read ‘reprint books’. ‘Shopping lists’ from a number of cultural bodies have included blanket requests for equipment or vehicles with no details of how they would be used, or ‘books’ but no titles. However, the reality is that in many cases promised support has simply not reached the recipients.

As Ana Rodriguez of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH) commented, ‘Only by working with the recipients in situ can a donor truly understand their needs’. A request for a state-of-the-art carbon 14 dating machine for the museum was withdrawn when it was pointed out that there was no room to accommodate it, no one trained to use it and no electric power at the time other than that provided by a small generator. Meanwhile the building it was requested for is still without a roof or water supply. In the first instance, organisations considering work with Afghanistan should contact a resident agency. Survey teams have overwhelmed the Afghans and it is possible that there is already information available. ‘Not another survey!’ said Maud Thomson of ACBAR. ‘The Afghans are tired of being interviewed and analysed. Requests for copies of surveys and research and a detailed study of the web with follow up phone calls or E-mails would be best. Come armed with a lot of data.’ In fact, some unheard of alliances have been forged between competitors in order to assist in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

One returnee working in the culture section is frustrated by the lack of initiative. ‘I understand that for years the people have had to wait for someone in authority to make decisions, but times have changed.’ The lesson learned is that follow up is constantly needed. Donations of photocopiers have not been used in at least two departments because there is no generator for electric power or a skilled staff member to use them. Sometimes materials needed such as ink or paper for use with a photocopier are not supplied, and with extremely low budgets the equipment just lies unused. The American Embassy wisely gave the National Archives phone cards along with the mobile phone they donated.

The lack of infrastructure in Afghanistan is not conducive to ease of contact in order for donors to assess accurately the potential for mutually useful exchange. However, the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society (FCCS) is currently initiating a service to link overseas specialists with Afghan artists or scholars. FCCS plans to develop a database of artists and a system to facilitate the linking of partners, as well as a stage for performances, a gallery and rooms for seminars and training sessions. It also intends to assist with the details of accommodation and travel and to set up a central ‘clearing house’ for artists which will incorporate an information centre and postal or E-mail access for Afghans in the field of culture who do not have access to the Internet. Funded by the World Bank, this project started in June 2003. In future regional offices will be set up to help artists access information and keep in touch with each other.

The difficulty of obtaining information about the provinces occurs mainly because of poor infrastructure and in some cases due to the reluctance of the ruling governor to relinquish control to Kabul. In one interview, Ministry officials in Mazar reported that since they have no fax machines or access to the Internet they usually communicate with the Ministry head office in Kabul by letter. On a recent trip the Governor of Nuristan Province said that he and his staff took two days to get to Kabul, part of the journey being on horseback. For many people a telephone is still an unheard of luxury, either because of the high cost or because of the lack of phone lines. The Internet is prohibitively expensive for most citizens, but should soon be available for many staff members in government ministries.

The Artists' Union of Afghanistan, with 3,000 members and regional offices throughout the country, has re-established itself and is now organising performances and seminars and disseminating information throughout the country. Sayed Abdul Fatah ‘Adil’, Director of the National Art Gallery, is working with the Union to set up galleries in other provinces. However, according to some artists there is still a need to de-politicise the Union, which was founded during Soviet times. The Soviet regime was supported by many Afghans who fought for their right to unionise, although for some these unions were often too closely linked to the government.