Major international donors have made a set of 10 conditions to the Afghan government and the Taliban ahead of the Geneva Conference for continued financial support to Afghanistan for the next four years.

The donors include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and European Union.

An inclusive Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process; a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire; continued commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights; are part of the conditions.

The conditions mentioned in the document are as follows:

•    Commitment to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and gender equality, embedded in the Constitution, and respect for Afghanistan’s international commitments are prerequisites for donor support.

•    Commitment to ensuring full equality between women and men, girls and boys, in all aspects of life, political, economic and social.

•    Commitment to effective implementation of the principles of governance embedded in the constitution.

•    Commitment to an inclusive Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process and sustainable peace with a meaningful role for victims of conflict and due account taken of victims’ rights; ensuring meaningful participation of women, youth, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, urban and rural voices in the negotiation of a peace agreement and taking necessary measures to address exclusion, under-representation, and other sources of grievance.

•    A secure and stable environment that underpins sustainable economic and human development.

•    Integrate and roll out the processes of peace-building, state-building, and market-building as instruments of nation-building.

•    Ensuring good governance, providing quality services to all citizens and promoting stability.

•    A meaningful, demonstrable fight against corruption.

•    Continued government commitments towards sound macro-economic policies and public financial management, and international support towards key reforms and reinforcement of good governance. 

•    The partners commit to the four principles of effective development cooperation that include country ownership, a focus on results, inclusive partnerships involving the full diversity of actors in the country, and transparency and accountability to citizens.

•    The Partners acknowledge conditionality as a core element of the aid architecture.

•    International partners also commit to increasing transparency in their communications and reporting to the government.

•    International partners strive for providing predictable multi-year aid.

This comes a day after Mohammad Haneef Atmar, the nominee for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an address to the parliament said there might be a reduction in the international community’s pledge to Afghanistan in the upcoming Geneva Conference as the world economy has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

“All international assistance, military and civilian, that was pledged to Afghanistan will end within the next two months, therefore, the Geneva conference needs to be held so that once again we have the international community’s assistance to the government and the people of Afghanistan,” Atmar told lawmakers. “There is a possibility that the international community shows its inability (to assist Afghanistan.”

The Afghan government said that Kabul is fully committed to the world in terms of safeguarding the gains Afghanistan has made in its strides towards democracy.

“We remain committed to the international community about their continued assistance. Of course, there is the issue of the peace process that needs to be handled by Afghans. Protection of the political gains, social gains and the democratic system are part of this continuity,” said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.