KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani outlined Afghanistan’s anti-corruption efforts at a meeting in Kabul today, drawing high-level representatives from the Afghan authorities, the international community and the United Nations family.

‘The Way Ahead for Anti-Corruption in Afghanistan’ conference was organised by the European Union to assist the drive to develop new strategies to combat corruption.

In the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, Afghanistan ranks second from the bottom – ahead only of North Korea and Somalia – in terms of the perceived levels of public-sector corruption.

In his keynote address, President Ghani emphasized the importance of tackling corruption in Afghanistan, and identified the programmes in place now and those additional measures to be taken to fight it.

One of those mechanisms is the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 2003, and is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. The Convention covers five main areas: prevention; criminalization and law enforcement measures; international cooperation; asset recovery; and technical assistance and information exchange.

Afghanistan signed the Convention in 2004 and ratified it on 25 August 2008, and since then has been working to review the Afghan penal code to include measures against financial crime and corruption.

The European Union has run an anti-corruption campaign in Afghanistan, which It includes a focus on corruption in the judicial sector and the mining industry aiming to help Afghan citizens fight corruption, and to mobilize support for stronger government action against corruption.

“Afghanistan’s endemic corruption is crippling the economy and undermining the fight against the insurgency. This threatens past achievements and investments in Afghanistan as well as the future of young Afghans,” said an EU statement about the campaign.

Last month, officials from the international community met with representatives from Afghanistan’s civil society and private sector to reaffirm their partnership and commitment to Afghanistan’s long-term development.

At that meeting, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, encouraged the government to continue progress on anti-corruption, economic growth and human rights.

While noting that the government has taken important steps in leadership and oversight to anti-corruption efforts, Mr. Haysom, who is head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that immediate and tangible results are essential to building Afghans’ confidence in the future of their country

The conference today is regarded as a curtain-raiser for two key upcoming conferences where the international community is expected to make its pledges to support Afghanistan in the years ahead – the first in Warsaw during July focussed on security and the second on development scheduled for October in Brussels. The international community has signalled it wants to support Afghanistan in its efforts to ensure it can combat corruption as a vital measure.