The growing insurgency has received increased international attention but long-term efforts to build solid governmental institutions for a stable Afghanistan are faltering, says International Crisis Group (ICG).
"In the face of rising violence, the government and its international backers risk favouring short-sighted, quick fixes that work around the new democratic institutions", says the Group's Senior Analyst Joanna Nathan. "This weakness the very institutions the country needs for its eventual stability."
ICG's assessment, made available here to the Business Recorder, examines the progress in pursuance of the Afghanistan Compact, jointly signed by the Afghan government and the international community in London last year, committing them to a "shared vision of the future.for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan".
The London conference set before it three "pillars of activity" - security; governance, rule of law and human rights; and social and economic development - to actively pursue over five years.
Following conclusion of the Bonn process, which created the country's elected bodies, the Afghanistan Compact was meant to create a framework for all stakeholders in Afghanistan's reconstruction. "But the assumption of relative stability upon which the Compact was premised has been undercut by an insurgency sustained by cross-border sanctuaries and Support."
"And state building was warped from the start because of a refusal to exclude undesirable elements from positions of power in the new institutions," says the ICG assessment report.
ICG notes that in order to serve its own interest and those of Afghan people better the international community must demand serious steps of the Karazi government to end the "flourishing culture of impunity which is the enemy of genuine reform. There must also be greater attention paid to building institutions at provincial and district levels if real change is to be seen in the people's lives.
Bringing the largely ignored legislative branch into the heart of the governance process will also ensure greater buy-in, the Group added. The Afghan Compact's overseer, the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, consisting of Afghan ministers and major international players, should help drive momentum and ensure coordination through more regular meetings of its heavy-hitters and by establishing an independent secretariat with a liaison to draw the National Assembly into the process.
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