Faith in the future

Afghanistan has been promised continued financial backing from the international community in return for stability and reforms.

Seventy countries and international organisations participated in the two-day conference on Afghanistan in Brussels. The Oct 4-5 meeting was jointly hosted by the EU and the government of national unity and attended by both President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Political analyst Roshan Shahab described the pledge as faith in the government’s national framework for peace and development.

Regional powers gave a boost to hopes of reviving peace talks with the Taleban on the sidelines of the conference. At a dinner, Oct 4, representatives of China, the US, Pakistan and India attended.

Vice President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, who coordinates EU foreign policy, is quoted saying that there was an understanding «to work on a common basis for regional political support for the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.»

«Yesterday night we found common ground to support this process with a regional perspective and the European Union will try to facilitate this,» Mogherini said.

She also spoke at a special session, ‘Empowered women, Prosperous Afghanistan’. It brought together high-level participants and panelists from across the international community, including the First Lady of Afghanistan, Rula Ghani.

“The empowerment of women is not only a matter of human rights and social justice; it is also about development; … it’s about security, it is about fulfilling the potential of Afghanistan”, said Mogherini. “A commitment towards women is a commitment towards stronger, richer and more just societies and as the European Union we are supporting this process both politically and as the biggest financial contributor to the country›s new National Action Plan for Women”, she added.

The international community has pledged 3 billion USD every year over a four-year period. It is half a million less than what was promised at the previous Tokyo summit on Afghanistan in 2012. The government of national unity has promised to use the aid against terrorism, administrative corruption and narcotics.

Hamid Karimi, the economic expert said the government must tackle corruption. “For 15 years, corruption and embezzling of the millions of dollars from donors has kept Afghanistan poor.”