Canada is committed to helping Afghanistan improve the lives and opportunities of its citizens. To this end, today at the London Conference on Afghanistan, the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State (Foreign Affairs and Consular), on behalf of the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, reaffirmed Canada’s commitment made at the 2012 Tokyo Conference to help Afghanistan achieve its long-term development goals.
At the Tokyo conference, Canada committed $227 million in development assistance to the Afghan people for the period of 2014–2017. Canada supports the advancement of Afghan women and girls through investments in education; maternal, newborn and child health; and the rights and empowerment of women and girls. Canada’s support also enhances Afghanistan’s ability to manage humanitarian assistance.
These efforts build on Canada’s decade-long engagement in Afghanistan and arise from the declarations that form the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework, which was jointly developed by Afghanistan and its partners.
Canada highly values this framework for mutual accountability, and strongly believes that reciprocal and reinforced governance achievements and development assistance will pave the way to a stable and prosperous Afghanistan.
As part of this $227-million commitment, Canada is contributing $10.4 million over four years (2015–2018) in renewed support to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. This is in addition to the $9.5 million provided between 2011 and 2014.
Some of Afghanistan’s main challenges remain: violence against women and girls, a lack of protection of civilians in conflict, arbitrary detention, internal population displacement and restrictions to religious and media freedom. Canada’s support to the commission will help bolster Afghanistan’s ability to address these challenges, as well as ensure that all citizens are afforded the same rights.
Key activities of the commission include:
- monitoring, data collection and reporting on human rights violations;
- human rights training sessions for women, community and religious leaders, members of Afghanistan’s military and police, lawyers, prison administrators, and legal assistants;
- technical assistance to academic institutions, including state and private universities, and to educational centres for judges and police;
- national inquiries, public hearings and conferences on key human rights issues; and
- improvements to strengthen the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s administration system to help it operate more effectively, efficiently and independently.
Canada's $227-million commitment includes a renewed contribution to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund for 2014–2017 of up to $135 million. The contribution will support Canada's development assistance programming priorities in basic education and health. In addition to this support, the Government of Canada will contribute $10 million in new funding for the trust fund in 2014–2015 to assist the Government of Afghanistan address recurring costs, such as public servant salaries.
Canada has contributed to the World Bank–administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund since its inception in 2002. The fund is the primary vehicle for Canada to channel development assistance to the Government of Afghanistan’s national budget to address recurring costs, as well as a portfolio of more than 20 development projects that are based on the country's National Priority Programs. The fund remains the vehicle of choice for pooled funding for donors contributing to development assistance projects in Afghanistan, with low transaction costs, excellent transparency and high accountability.
In addition to development assistance, Canada committed $330 million at the 2012 Chicago Summit to help sustain the Afghan National Security Forces between 2015 and 2017.
Canada’s ongoing efforts will support the long-term objective of both Afghanistan and the international community to transfer responsibility for security and governance to the Government of Afghanistan and its people.
Canada’s support is dependent on the performance of the Government of Afghanistan in achieving concrete progress on key reforms, including implementing measures to tackle corruption and human rights—in particular, the rights of women.
