Актуальные проблемы Европы №3 / 2013 - стр. 29

Following the July 2010 Kabul Conference, the government of Afghanistan decided to enhance the coherence of its policy action and create instruments to further facilitate the International Community's alignment with its priorities. As a result, ministries with responsibilities in homogeneous policy areas were clustered and cluster leaders were asked to develop 22 National Priority Programmes (NPPs).

NPPs will serve as instruments for the implementation of the sector development strategies in areas such as governance, basic service delivery, agriculture and rural development and infrastructure. In the run up to the Tokyo conference intense consultations with donors have paved the way for the endorsement of 16 NPPs to date, which should now enter the implementation phase. Two NPPs, of core importance for the EU development assistance portfolio, still require significant work and are expected to be finalised in the course of 2013.

In line with the principles of aid effectiveness, the government asked donors to progressively align funding with national programmes, and use government systems as much as possible, shifting from project to programme mode. The aim is to improve coordination and better target development assistance. The EU is already largely aligned behind national priorities and national programmes and is striving for further alignment, using government systems as much as possible.

The political construct that dominated the Tokyo conference was the Mutual Accountability Framework (TMAF). The TMAF sets out a series of areas in which the government is committed to reform, namely (i) Representational Democracy and Equitable Elections; (ii) Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights; (iii) Integrity of Public Finance and Commercial Banking; (iv) Government Revenues, Budget Execution and Sub-National Governance; (v) Inclusive and Sustained Growth and Development.

The International Community reconfirmed its support to financially and politically support the aspirations of Afghanistan. However it also made it very clear that these exceptional efforts will need to be mirrored by an ambitious reform plan in the field of governance and development and by a transformation of the political processes.

The EU was in the lead in the negotiation of the TMAF and in particular on the conditionality or rather the mutuality of the commitments but has also been at the forefront in moving the framework from a theoretical construct to implementation. In particular, the EU has enhanced the predictability of funding, taken bold steps to bring support on budget and increase alignment. However, in the spirit of mutual accountability, it also withheld funding of €20 million in aid for the justice sector in November 2012, due to delays of the government of putting forward its reform strategy. If the European Union is deeply committed in supporting Afghanistan, it needs to stress that in the spirit of the Tokyo agreement support will be increasingly conditional of the delivery of the Afghan government on the agreed reform agenda.