IFIT working paper underlines aid distribution challenge in Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): Aid providing agencies could help empower Afghan society’s ability to protect and ultimately expand civic space in Afghanistan, according to a working paper on Thursday.

The paper titled ‘Responsible International Aid for Populations Ruled by Illegitimate Regimes’ by IFIT recommended that To do so effectively, a discussion among donors should take place through a high-level working group to agree collectively on a set of technical requirements linked to aid implementation (such as non-interference in the work of CDCs, or tax exemptions like those described above) and then to try securing the Taliban’s commitment to them through a judicious mix of private and public communications.

There is a broad consensus that donors’ leverage over the Taliban and their ability to change the direction of its major policies, for example in girls’ education, has been minimum to non-existent, the paper said in its conclusion.

The list should be a clearly articulated technical – not political – set of requirements, ideally culminating in a written confirmation by the Taliban Supreme Leader. It is clear that past efforts at leveraging aid to negotiate concessions from the Taliban bore little fruit.

The next time may not be any easier. A more efficient way forward may be through decoupling the negotiation of political questions and the negotiation of an agreed set of technical requirements of aid delivery. Focusing initially on the latter may help reduce the foreseeable difficulties with the former.

Since September 2021, the international community has been struggling with the dilemma of how to support the population and reduce hardship if the country continues to be led by an unelected, illegitimate regime, which includes officials who have been designated as terrorists and placed under international sanctions, the paper said in its introduction.

After more than a year under Taliban rule, Afghanistan is mired in dysfunction. Basic services such as health and education continue to decline, the public sector is paralysed and the private sector lacks basic preconditions for the kind of economic activity that could alleviate dire poverty.

The country can be expected to remain in a major humanitarian crisis and state of aid dependency for years, it added.

Pr/nh