The objective of Danish cooperation with Afghanistan is to support the building up of a society that is democratic and stable. Denmark wishes to contribute to improving the security situation and fighting terrorism and to creating improvements in the living conditions of the poor and respect for the rights of the individual, including of women.
The 2001 Bonn agreement is expected to be replaced in early 2006 by a mutually binding agreement between Afghanistan and the international community in which Afghanistan commits itself to continuing the ongoing development. In return, the international community will commit itself to continuing to supply development assistance and military assistance.
The Danish effort is to contribute to the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals as they are formulated in ”Securing Afghanistan's Future” and which are expected to be continued further in Afghanistan's ”National Development Strategy”.
The development in the security situation and the political situation is unpredictable over the next 5-year period, and the conditions for progress in the reconstruction process are uncertain. It will thus be necessary to adjust the Danish-supported efforts to the changed conditions and a high degree of flexibility within the overall objectives will be demanded.
The Afghan government has requested that each of the donor countries should focus its support on a few sectors and otherwise channel as much as possible through the national financing channels, either as general budget support, sector budget support or support to national programmes. As a response to this request and in order to continue to strengthen long-term sustainable development, Danish development assistance will emphasise strengthening national ownership, furthering development assistance coordination, and reducing the administrative burden for the Afghan government. Denmark has therefore chosen to continue channelling the major part of development assistance through the national priority programmes and as budget support. To supplement this, bilateral activities will be continued in education and the human rights and humanitarian area. These efforts will be sought coordinated and, if possible, co-financed within the frames of programmes supported by international organisations and other bilateral donors.
The promotion of democratisation and respect for human rights will also be dealt with systematically, partly through special efforts and partly as a crosscutting issue. In addition, as a crosscutting consideration in Danish-supported issues, there will be focus on furthering due process and respect for individual rights. Finally, Denmark will attempt to promote the development of targets and indicators in order to evaluate progress in the human rights area in general.
Furthering good governance and reconstruction of the public sector will be given high priority and will be dealt with systematically in Danish cooperation through support to policy dialogue, direct efforts, and as a crosscutting consideration in all other efforts. Moreover, as a crosscutting consideration in all Danish-supported activities there will be focus on promoting accountability, transparency and combating corruption in the institutions, both state and non-state, with which Denmark cooperates.
Denmark will place strong emphasis on supporting capacity building in national institutions and other organisations as a necessary precondition for making the effort sustainable. Denmark is planning to offer technical assistance within the education sector in the form of long-term consultancy for the Ministry of Education and in the area of human rights and democracy. Denmark will as far as possible make use of Afghan advisers or advisers from the region.
Denmark will stress contributing to improving the living conditions of the impoverished Afghan population and furthering private sector development in rural areas. The incorporation of the work with reintegration of returned refugees and asylum seekers will continue to be a very great challenge both locally and for the central authorities. Denmark will conduct region of origin efforts aimed at returned refugees, the displaced and asylum seekers, so that these activities complement the rest of the development assistance work to the greatest possible extent.
As mentioned above, with respect to the geographical coverage Denmark will channel a large proportion of Danish assistance through national trust funds and programmes covering the whole of the country. The selection of the provinces for the bilateral effort will depend on a number of factors including the security situation, local development needs and consideration for coordination with other actors. In accordance with the government's initiative concerning ”Interaction between civilian and military efforts in international operations” from March 2004, Denmark will utilise part of the assistance in provinces where there is a Danish military presence. Civilian advisers have been employed in connection with Danish PRT units in order to strengthen coordination between the civilian and military efforts.