Priorities
Priority 6. Facilitate Afghan-led efforts toward political reconciliation.
The military counter-insurgency campaign conducted by Afghan forces and ISAF, no matter how successful, cannot by itself secure lasting peace or achieve Afghanistan’s governance and development objectives. Any sustainable peace will require political reconciliation, an imperative all the more difficult in a society divided over many years by violent conflict. Reconciliation must be led by Afghans themselves. Canadians and international partners can help facilitate those efforts.
Canadian Objective for 2011:
• By 2011, we expect that national and provincial Afghan government initiatives will encourage political reconciliation, and receive timely support from Canada.
Afghan authorities have attempted such efforts—not least with programs aimed at disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating former insurgents. In the main, it must be said, these initiatives have not progressed far. Canada has taken measures to support Afghan-led reconciliation when opportunities have emerged. We have also joined other governments in supporting the establishment of the Afghanistan Government Media Centre—a valuable improvement in the Afghan government’s ability to communicate with its citizens. And we are planning to work with Afghans to map local power structures and conflicts in southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar. The aim here is to form a better picture of local divisions, and encourage peaceful dispute settlement among local power brokers and communities.
Our benchmark for this priority will be the Afghan government’s capacity to promote reconciliation. One of the progress indicators will be the identification, by Afghan authorities, of the institutions and officials responsible for promoting this reconciliation. Our 2011 target is for responsibility to be clearly delineated, with a lead authority moving a reconciliation process forward. The Afghan cabinet recently identified the Independent Directorate for Local Governance as responsible for reconciliation efforts, but a process has not yet been developed.
