Next month, Afghanistan’s regime will be heading to Geneva for its annual fundraising, seeking support from international donors. Nineteen years into the war, and with peace potentially on the horizon, this could be a challenge.
Experts say that the Afghan government will get reduced pledges, chiefly because of uncertainty over how the intra-Afghan peace talks are going, and what Afghanistan is going to look like with the US withdrawing.
Afghanistan’s World Bank director says the need for funds is growing because of covid, and that peace could be at risk if the government doesn’t get its annual donations. Some analysts say they see donors as trying to buy influence over post-war Afghanistan.
There is no word of Taliban involvement in the Geneva meeting, and it’s not clear if they are even invited. This could be a chance to answer questions about future Afghanistan, but the Ghani government probably doesn’t want to reduce its own apparent control over the situation with the talks still ongoing.
Uncertainty Expected to Hurt Donations for Afghanistan
Questions over intra-Afghan talks loom large
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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