Oxfam's reaction to the 2011 Bonn Conference on Afghanistan

Louise Hancock, Oxfam's Afghanistan policy officer, said:

“It’s been another conference of flowery speeches: big on rhetoric and short on substance.  

“One of the few scraps of comfort Afghans can take from today is that the international community has pledged not to abandon them after the planned withdrawal of combat troops by 2015.  A specific EC promise to maintain aid levels and keep its police training mission was very welcome. But most other pledges were disappointingly vague and will only mean something if words are turned into actions.

“Afghans needed to see firm commitments on reforming the national security forces, enforcing women’s equal rights and providing aid that is designed to help Afghan families lead safer, healthier and more prosperous lives rather than winning hearts and minds. A decade after the first Bonn Conference, it’s a scandal that millions of Afghans still can’t feed themselves properly.

“Now we have to wait until the Tokyo conference, planned for next July, to see if world leaders can get their act together and deliver the changes and the commitment which Afghanistan so desperately needs.”

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Oxfam's humanitarian response to the crisis in Afghanistan