SECURE ENVIRONMENT FOR RECONSTRUCTION:

Security remains the greatest challenge facing the new Afghan government and its reconstruction efforts. Peace and stability throughout the country are prerequisites to bringing social and economic progress. However, these will continue to remain elusive without adequate political and financial support for expanded peacekeeping. The training of an Afghan national security force is an essential component of the longer-term solution, and should receive increased financial and technical support. However, we must recognize that an Afghan Army will not be fully functional within the next two years. Meanwhile the funding for peacekeepers -- about 4% of international funds spent in Afghanistan over the past year -- is insufficient for providing security in Kabul, let alone the outlying areas. We implore the UN and member governments to adopt a viable plan for ensuring adequate security in Afghanistan, and to provide the necessary financial and logistical support without further delay.

LONG-TERM FUNDING COMMITMENTS:

In Tokyo, donors pledged US$5.25 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan over the next five years. Based on experiences in similar post-conflict settings, at least twice this amount will be required to restore the essential social and physical infrastructure needed to revive the country's economy. And this estimate only covers reconstruction and rehabilitation requirements, and not the urgent humanitarian needs of the country. Yet the bulk of the funds spent since the Tokyo conference have been dispersed on addressing emergency needs -- 60% is a conservative estimate. To enable Afghanistan to make the transition out of an 'emergency state', more resources must be devoted to interventions aimed at improving essential infrastructure, economic opportunities, and public health and education systems. While significant levels of assistance are being provided, key donors have failed to commit longer-term funding for reconstruction. Providing funds for 1-2 years is not going to solve the problems compiled through 23 years of war. We urge major donors to make firm commitments to increase funding over the next five years in order to deliver at least US$10 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

AFGHAN-LED DEVELOPMENT:

For the peace and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan to be viable in the long term, they must be led by the Afghan people and their government. At present, the Afghan government admittedly lacks sufficient capacity to respond to the country's immense humanitarian and rehabilitation needs. While NGOs are currently being heavily relied upon to fill of this role, we are committed to working in ways that build government capacity at the national, provincial and municipal levels to assume more responsibility. We believe that enhanced partnerships between Government and NGOs will produce the best results for the Afghan people. However, donors must also do their part. By channeling insufficient resources through the Afghan government -- over the past year, this has been less that one fifth of total donor funds -- donors have undermined efforts to strengthen its capacity. Donors should work more urgently to build the capacity of the Afghan government to assume strategic leadership for the country’s reconstruction. Transferring more control over resources and decisions to them is critical to any such efforts.

In closing, we are urging the Afghan government, the UN and multilateral agencies -- to take action on these recommendations, specifically to amplify their efforts to ensure Afghanistan is provided with adequate resources and security necessary to address urgent humanitarian needs, and to enable longer-term, Afghan-led reconstruction of the country.