Afghan civil society demands active role within mutual accountability framework

24 Jul 2012

Afghan civil society demands active role within mutual accountability framework

KABUL - Afghan civil society has demanded an active role in decision making, policy development and monitoring of the policy implementations within the framework of mutual accountability endorsed in the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan earlier this week.

The representatives of Afghan civil society, who attended the International Conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo, addressed a press conference today upon their return to Kabul.

Hayatullah Hayat, the spokesman of the Afghan civil society said that the international community has made funding commitments up to 2024 but these funding is not clear on yearly basis. He demanded from the international community to specify the funding commitments for each year in the lead up to 2024.

“Funding commitments are also not clear for priority sectors such as agriculture, education and health,” said Hayatullah. “Afghan Government should strictly consider issues of human rights and environment protection while awarding contracts to the foreign countries in the mining sector.”

The civil society representatives also demanded from the Afghan government to share with them reports of Financial Management Policy, which has been endorsed for up to December 2012.

Another speaker in the press conference, Ajmal Balochzada said he told that participants of the Tokyo Conference that Afghan government should accelerate its efforts on anti-corruption, anti-terrorism, good governance, human rights, women’s rights and rule of law and the flow of international funding should be linked with progress on these matters.

“In the wake of its past ten-year performance, concerns exist among the international community on the ability of the Afghan Government to have any significant achievement during the coming two years,” said Balochzada.

A total of 30 representatives of the Afghan civil society – 50 per cent of them being women – travelled to Tokyo last week to attend an international conference of civil society in Tokyo on 7 July 2012 and the main international conference a day later.

These representatives were elected earlier in a national gathering of civil society organizations in Kabul to advocate on behalf of civil society organizations and people of Afghanistan on key national issues with the international and national decision makers in Tokyo.

Over 70 Government representatives and international organizations participated in the daylong conference, which agreed to provide US$ 16 billion to meet Afghanistan’s economic and development needs through 2015. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Conference that the UN would extend “strong support” to Afghanistan throughout the Transformation Decade, 2015-2025, while calling on donors to continue to keep the flow of their assistance. The UN chief also called on Afghanistan to play its part according to the Mutual Accountability Framework endorsed by the Conference.

Related links:

1. Donors conference in Tokyo pledges US$ 16 billion for Afghanistan's development

2. INTERVIEW: Michael Keating, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan on the Tokyo Conference