UNAMA and the family of UN agencies warmly congratulate Afghan and international NGOs on the launch of their Code of Conduct. It sets very high standards that are relevant not only to NGOs but to the aid community at large. It should be broadcast far and wide and will boost popular confidence in what all of us are trying to achieve in Afghanistan.

There is no doubt that the reconstruction effort needs more transparency and accountability, from everyone. In the past three years, in the rush to try and deliver the peace dividends that the Bonn agreement called for, and to address the dramatic social and economic deficit the country suffers from, some basic requirements were sometimes overshadowed and some important lines were blurred, helped by a persistent legal and policy vacuum.

Together with the upcoming NGO legislation, the Code of Conduct paves the way for what should be a new and better framework for reconstruction, in which the respective roles of NGOs, the private sector and government entities are clearly defined, regulated and monitored. It should be supplemented with the lessons that have been learned regarding the functions of PRTs in the area of reconstruction.

This effort will not only benefit the NGO community. It will enable the reconstruction process in Afghanistan to retain a feature essential to its success: drawing on the goodwill, the expertise, knowledge and comparative advantages of the widest possible gamut of individuals and organizations – civilians and military, Afghans and foreigners, public, private and NGOs sectors.

The NGO community has been a pillar of Afghanistan’s survival in the past two decades, with which the UN has worked very closely and which the UN is proud to call a partner. Today’s initiative can only make this partnership stronger, and establish Afghan civil society even more firmly as a key actor in the rebuilding of its country.


Kabul, 30 May 2005

Copyright © United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)