The Afghan government is preparing to attend the Geneva conference that will be held in November,  where it is expected that international donors will pledge support for the next four years, on the condition that the nation has fulfilled commitments made previously at the same conference in 2016.

The ministerial conference will be organized by Finland and will be co-hosted by the Afghan government and the United Nations.

An Afghan government spokesman said that 18 out of 63 commitments have been met by the Afghan government so far.

“From the commitments, 18 of them have been fully implemented, the implementation of 34 commitments is underway and at least 11 commitments are facing some problems and efforts are underway to resolve them,” said Shamroz Khan Masjidi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.

A Kabul-based researcher said the Afghan government expects to receive pledges of at least $8 billion annual aid at the conference.

“Afghanistan is expected to try and get the pledge for another five years through to 2024,” said Nazir Kabiri, head of Al-Beroni research institute.

Critics said that convincing the international community might be difficult for the Afghan government, considering the limited progress made by the former government – the National Unity Government-- led by Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah.

“The endemic corruption in the government (offices), the COVID-10 crisis in the world and the lack of implementation of the commitments by the Afghan government will lead the international community to think about a reduction of assistance and even cutting assistance to the Afghan government,” said Shabir Bashiri, an analyst in economic affairs.