EU holds donors conference for Afghanistan

The European Union (EU) is holding a fund-raising conference for the cash-strapped government in Afghanistan, which has to tackle with a host of issues, including rampant militancy in the country.

Leaders from more than 70 countries and 20 international organizations and agencies have gathered in the EU’s de facto capital on Tuesday to take part in the two-day EU-led donors conference, which is titled “The Brussels Conference on Afghanistan: realizing Afghanistan’s economic potential and reinforcing the role of women.”

The EU has said the overall aim of the conference is “generating international support for the Afghan reform process and ensuring continued international political and financial support to bolster Afghanistan’s economic stability, development and state-building processes over the next four years.”

The Afghan government is expecting the international community to allocate an annual four billion dollars to it for programs to rebuild the country, as pledged at the last donors conference in Tokyo in 2012.

Eighty percent of Afghanistan’s budget is financed by international aid.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that the EU “will pledge 1.2 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) and we would expect a similar level engagement from our partners.”

EU officials had warned ahead of the meeting that it was unclear whether the target of four billion dollars would be achieved, with media speculating that the meeting would only drum up three billion dollars annually to keep the government running until 2020.

The US and the EU each currently provide about a third of all international aid to Afghanistan, with Japan being the next most generous donor.

SS