Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, LONDON

TEXT SIZE

home Government

Government

Displaying Page 1 of 1

Nov 13, 2008
Bonn Agreement

Officially the Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-Establishment of Permanent Government Institutions, the Bonn Agreement was the initial series of agreements intended to re-create the State of Afghanistan following the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan in response to September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an invasion which ended the twenty-plus-year-long Afghan Civil War. Since no nationally-agreed-upon government had existed in Afghanistan since 1979, it was felt necessary to have a transition period before a permanent government was established. A nationally-agreed-upon government would require at least one loya jirga to be convened; however, in the absence of law and order in the wake of the rapid victory of American and Afghan Northern Allaince forces, immediate steps were felt to be required.

Download detailed "The Bonn Agreement" in PDF format.

Nov 13, 2008
Afghanistan Compact

Determined to strengthen their partnership to improve the lives of Afghan people, and to contribute to national, regional, and global peace and security;

Affirming their shared commitment to continue, in the spirit of the Bonn, Tokyo and Berlin conferences, to work toward a stable and prosperous Afghanistan, with good governance and human rights protection for all under the rule of law, and to maintain and strengthen that commitment over the term of this Compact and beyond;

Recognising the courage and determination of Afghans who, by defying violent extremism and hardship, have laid the foundations for a democratic, peaceful, pluralistic and prosperous state based on the principles of Islam;

Noting the full implementation of the Bonn Agreement through the adoption of a new constitution in January 2004, and the holding of presidential elections in October 2004 and National Assembly and Provincial Council elections in September 2005, which have enabled Afghanistan to regain its rightful place in the international community;

Mindful that Afghanistan's transition to peace and stability is not yet assured, and that strong international engagement will continue to be required to address remaining challenges;

Resolved to overcome the legacy of conflict in Afghanistan by setting conditions for sustainable economic growth and development; strengthening state institutions and civil society; removing remaining terrorist threats; meeting the challenge of counter-narcotics; rebuilding capacity and infrastructure; reducing poverty; and meeting basic human needs;

Download Detailed "The Afghanistan Compact" in PDF format.

Nov 13, 2008
Afghanistan National Development Strategy

This Government's vision for Afghanistan is fully consistent with our Islamic and cultural values as statedin our Constitution. In the next fifteen years, we aim to ensure that Afghanistan meets all of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).If we achieve this vision, we will all but eliminate extreme poverty and hunger in Afghanistan. All our children, boys and girls alike, will complete their primary educations. Afghanistan'swomen will enjoy greater equity in education, political participation and justice. We will cut by more than half the number of children dying before they reach five, and the number of mothers that die in childbirth. We will halt the spread of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases and ensure that our development is environmentally sustainable. And we will accomplish all of this through a strong partnership with the international community that helps to provide the security and to support the stable political environment upon which our economic development will depend.

“Our vision for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is to consolidate peace and stability through just, democratic processes and institutions, and to reduce poverty and achieve prosperity through broad based and equitable economic growth.”

Like the Circle of Justice, this vision has mutually reinforcing security, political and economic dimensions.Government firmly believes that without concurrent progress on all three pillars, its vision will not be fulfilled, and Afghanistan's risks a circle of injustice. A failure to deliver security will affect Government's ability to govern. A failure of governance will undermine the investment climate and limit our ability to provide basic services. A lack of economic development will threaten our capacity to govern and ensure security. Failure to attend simultaneously to all these cross-cutting issues will effectively undermine the gender equity of the development process, support the continued growth of the narcotics economy, limit the expansion of regional trade and transit opportunities, lead to increased levels of petty corruption, and undermine the environment with both economic and social consequences.

Our security vision is to create a peaceful and just society, where the state has a monopoly on the use
of force and uses it to protect the rights of all Afghans. With the support of our international partners, we aim to build a well trained, affordable, representative and professionalized national army and police force that provide security and uphold the law.

Our Governance vision is to develop Afghanistan into a stable and mature Islamic constitutional democracy where the three branches of government (executive, parliamentary and judicial) provide the necessary checks and balances on each other. Government will act as a policy maker, regulator, and enabler of the private sector, not its competitor. Our unitary state will deliver basic services to the Afghan people through a cost-effective national and sub-national administration and ensure that our justice system equally protects the rights of all Afghans.

Our economic vision is to build a liberal market economy in which all Afghans can participate productively without engaging in production or trafficking of narcotics or other criminal activities. To do this, we will develop an enabling environment for the private sector to generate legitimate profits and pay reasonable taxes, thereby enhancing public revenues that can then be invested in public services. Ultimately, we want to move beyond dependence upon international aid and build a thriving legal private sector-led economy that reduces poverty and allows all afghans to live in dignity.

To achieve pro-poor growth while eliminating the criminal economy, we aim to make simultaneous strategic investments across the security, governance and economic pillars. While our priorities in each of these areas are framed in the I-ANDS and the 5-year strategic benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact, we will focus in particular upon those areas that enhance our current and future productivity, including electricity, roads, irrigation, institutional and human capacity building, creating an enabling environment for private sector development and protecting the rights of the poor. Aswe target our investments in these areas,we will seek to support likely areas of accelerated economic growth, including rural development (agriculture and rural industries), the management of state assets, mining and extractive industries, and transit.

By creating a secure, politically stable and economically supportive environment for growth, we expect the private sector to thrive and in so doing, to employ our population and increasingly generate the public revenues that will allow the Government to work towards our MDGs. We want to stand on our own feet as soon as possible as a full and equal member of the region and theworld.

Each year, we will review our progress towards our MDGs and our I-ANDS benchmarks and make adjustments in our five-year fiscal framework and our annual budget. These relationships can be represented as follows:

Download detailed "ANDS Document" in PDF format