Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2014 will leave the country in a worse state than before the 2001 invasion, according to the head of the largest humanitarian network in the world.
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The director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Yves Daccord, arrived in Australia this week and at the Australian National University last night he took part in a panel discussion about the ''Arab Spring'' democratic uprisings in the Middle East and the transition out of Afghanistan.
Speaking before the event, Mr Daccord said the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse.
''We have a gloomy perspective on what's happening in Afghanistan. We think it's worsening, despite some pockets of improvement - security is going down, access to basic facilities is down,'' Mr Daccord said.
''The forces will leave and there will be less support and less aid. We think in the next two years this power vacuum will see more tensions between Afghan groups trying to assert themselves.''
He said the reasons for the invasion were so varied it was difficult to judge the mission's success.
During his visit Mr Daccord will meet representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ausaid.
He said Australia's position on the world stage was becoming more important as our foreign policy developed ''real objectives and a real plan of action'' on global issues and international humanitarian law.
The Australian Government gave the ICRC $53 million this year. The organisation aims to be a neutral, independent and exclusively humanitarian. This year the organisation, which receives 85 per cent of its funding from governments, is seeking about $1.2billion to continue its work next year.
A spokeswoman from Ausaid said the Australian Multilateral Assessment was reviewing 42 organisations on their poverty orientation and impact, capacity to make a difference, value for money and alignment with Australia's development objectives.
''The ICRC is one of the organisations being assessed. The assessment .. is likely to be publicly released in the first quarter of 2012,'' she said.
Mr Daccord said the world economic crisis, remote war technologies such as cyber attack and drones and the so-called ''Arab Spring'' were the biggest issues facing the organisation in 2012.
While an increase in the number of attacks on health-care workers and medical facilities was making the organisation's job harder.
''There is no trust. People think ambulances carry weapons. Ambulances are blocked at check points - it's not a massive violation but the flow-on effects are great,'' Mr Daccord said.
