{"id":23524,"date":"2018-11-28T05:24:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T05:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23524"},"modified":"2018-11-28T05:24:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T05:24:15","slug":"eu-signs-assistance-package-for-afghanistan-worth-a%c2%ac474m-in-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23524","title":{"rendered":"EU signs assistance package for Afghanistan worth \u00e2\u201a\u00ac474m in Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Geneva, Switzerland<\/strong> – The European Union signed a financing agreement worth millions of euros with Afghanistan during a key summit focused on development and the war-torn country’s beleaguered economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The aid agreement made on Tuesday at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan is worth \u20ac474m ($535m) to support state building and public sector reforms, healthcare, law enforcement, and elections – as well as to address migration and displacement challenges in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The EU stands side by side with Afghanistan and its people to build a stronger future for the country,”\u00a0Neven\u00a0<\/span>Mimica, c<\/span>ommissioner for International Cooperation and Development, <\/span>said at the summit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Through joint efforts we intend to reduce aid-dependency and invest in democratic governance for the benefit all citizens of the country,” Mimica said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two-day summit in Geneva is billed as a platform for the Afghan government to renew its commitment to reform and discuss aid contributions in its bid to achieve stability and security.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pursuing reform<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>United Nations<\/a>, which is co-hosting the summit a<\/span>t the city’s Palais des Nations\u00a0<\/span>with the Afghan government,\u00a0<\/span>said <\/a>\u00a0the conference “will also be crucial in measuring results against the $15.2bn committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016”.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Kabul to seek support for Afghan-led peace plan in Geneva talks<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Within the package, \u20ac311m is allocated to support the Afghan government in pursuing its reform agenda, \u20ac80 million\u00a0<\/span>to improve the health and nutrition of the population, and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u20ac15.5m will\u00a0support the presidential and provincial council elections in 2019.<\/p>\n

The EU and the Afghan government also signed a new agreement worth\u00a0\u20ac37m to “reinforce EU assistance to Afghanistan in addressing migration and forced displacement challenges”, which brings the total contribution to\u00a0almost\u00a0 \u20ac230m.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday,\u00a0<\/em>UNICEF’s c<\/span>hief of communication in Afghanistan, Alison Parker, warned the situation for children is “dire”, with s<\/span><\/span>evere acute malnutrition among children being “among\u00a0the highest globally with about half a million children affected”.<\/p>\n

“The situation is exacerbated by what has been described as the worst drought in decades with some two million people affected, over half of whom are children,” Parker\u00a0<\/span>said at the summit in Geneva, adding s<\/span>ome “5,000 children have been killed or maimed within the first three quarters of 2018, equal to all of 2017”.<\/p>\n

\nTaliban<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The conference comes at a time when the US administration is holding direct talks with the\u00a0Taliban<\/a>, Afghanistan’s largest armed group which was toppled following a US-led invasion in 2001.<\/p>\n

The Taliban wants to drive international forces out of the country and establish a legal system based on a strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, a conflict which has claimed thousands of lives in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0latest\u00a0<\/span>figures<\/a>\u00a0released in July by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 1,692 civilians were killed during the first six months of 2018 – the most recorded in the period over the last decade since the agency began documentation.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are now about 14,000 US soldiers in the country as part of the\u00a0Resolute Support.<\/span>\u00a0The Taliban has previously said the presence of foreign troops was the biggest obstacle to peace in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geneva, Switzerland – The European Union signed a financing agreement worth millions of euros with Afghanistan during a key summit focused on development and the war-torn country’s beleaguered economy. The aid agreement made on Tuesday at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan is worth \u20ac474m ($535m) to support state building and public sector reforms, healthcare, law…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}