The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that quality of life in Afghanistan has improved since U.S. involvement began in 2002.

Donald Sampler of the Afghanistan office at USAID told a House hearing Thursday about substantial improvements to life expectancy, education, and infrastructure. Some of those improvements include:

‐​ 90 percent of the population has landline or cell phone service. 100,000 people are employed by the telecom industry.

The hearing was called to understand what could happen to USAID’s civilian workforce if American troops withdraw this year. It is still unclear how U.S. funded projects will be monitored when troops are not around to provide security.