EU announces new funds to Afghanistan at donors conference

The European Union and other donors offered new funding for Afghanistan on Tuesday, as a UN official declared now is “not the time to walk away” from years of hard work in trying to build peace and stability in a poor country where Taliban fighters have made inroads against the internationally-backed government. A largely virtual, one-day pledging conference in Geneva, co-hosted by Finland, drew representatives from over 70 countries in the first such event in four years. It comes as the COVID-19 crisis has commanded worldwide attention, and the virus outbreak in Afghanistan has compounded persistent ills like corruption and extremist violence.

Countries like Britain, the Netherlands and Canada stepped forward with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of pledges for Afghanistan as the session got under way, after speeches from top officials like Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who hailed the country’s “ambitious agenda for development and reform.”“The United Nations stands with the people of Afghanistan on the path toward peace, development and self-reliance,” Guterres said, expressing hope that donor pledges will “translate into real progress and concrete improvements for the people of Afghanistan.”

The European Union pledged 1.2 billion euros ($1.43 billion) in assistance to Afghanistan over the next four years, but like many others made its support conditional on the strife-torn country’s commitment to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and gender equality. A U.S. watchdog said over $19 billion of U.S. money alone had been lost to abuse, fraud and waste.