7/19/2020 Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan | Aga Khan Development Network

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SPEECH

His Highness the Aga Khan delivers his statement on behalf of the Imamat and the AKDN
at the UNAMA Geneva Conference on Afghanistan.
AKDN / Jean-Luc Ray

Geneva Ministerial Conference on

Afghanistan
Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim
SPEECH DELIVERED BY
His Highness the Aga Khan Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
LOCATION

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7/19/2020 Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan | Aga Khan Development Network

Therefore, since our last meeting, working in cooperation with our partners, we have opened the
Bamyan Provincial Hospital, and the Mothers’ Wing of the French Medical Institute for Mothers
and Children in Kabul. We have expanded our work with Afghanistan’s education system to
improve the quality of learning and to help over 150,000 girls to go to school. In the coming years,
we intend to build a full-service tertiary research hospital in Kabul linked to the Aga Khan
University, to deepen our work in primary and secondary education, and to expand activities of
the regional University of Central Asia.

In the area of civil society, our ongoing commitment to Afghanistan’s diverse culture was marked
by the recently-completed Chihilsitoon Palace and Gardens, joining over 140 other heritage sites
around the country restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture with the strong support of the
Afghan government and international partners. This year, we have together launched an
ambitious plan to rejuvenate the Kabul Riverfront. We are also working directly to harness the
power of people coming together: through the Aga Khan Foundation, we have helped thousands
of community groups and district authorities deliver the government’s vital Citizen’s Charter and
promote more inclusive development in remote areas.

To foster regional integration, we have expanded the transmission lines of Pamir Energy from
Tajikistan into Northern Afghanistan, providing some villages with power for the first time. We will
soon start work on a sixth cross-border bridge and market between those countries, and are in
advanced discussions to increase substantially electrification from the border to Faizabad.

Mr Chairman, the experience of the past seventeen years has strongly reinforced my conviction
that the path to sustainable peace in Afghanistan depends heavily on two key principles –
regional cooperation, which is key for national development and stability; and a commitment to
pluralism – the country’s diversity must be cultivated as a source of strength. Everyone in all
regions should benefit from investment that creates hope for the future. This is a guiding principle
of our investment in Afghanistan. I hope that these are principles on which we can all work
together, and to which we remain committed in Afghanistan.

Thank you.

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Geneva, Switzerland (28 November 2018) I wish to thank the Government of Afghanistan
and the United Nations for bringing the
RELATED INFORMATION international community together to reaffirm our
Event summary commitment to Afghanistan, and, most
Press release importantly, to its people.
Video: Highlights from the conference Two years ago, many of us gathered in Brussels
for a similar purpose. And there have been
RELATED LINKS
several such gatherings over the past some
AKDN in Afghanistan
seventeen years. Commitments have been
LANGUAGES made, challenges overcome, hopes raised and
sometimes dashed.
  
It would seem at times that hope is difficult to
sustain. The challenges of building security,
alleviating poverty, addressing the impact of
Geneva Ministerial Confer…
Confer…
climate change, and the complexities of pursuing
reconciliation are a few of the cross-cutting
areas that dominate our thinking.

I would suggest that we should be guided

equally by acknowledging and supporting the
resilience of the Afghan people. They have
recently voted in record numbers, often at great
personal risk. And their spontaneous reactions
during this year’s brief ceasefire gave us all a glimpse of the country that could be: people from
every region and background unified in their desire for peace.

The National Unity Government also deserves our recognition and support for its efforts to
implement critical reforms and advance Afghanistan on the road to self-reliance.

Two years ago, in Brussels, we promised to deepen our commitment in three critical areas:
building human capital; strengthening institutions and civil society; and promoting regional
development.

I have always maintained that my institutions would make a permanent commitment to the
country. Therefore, on behalf of the Ismaili Imamat and the Aga Khan Development Network, I
underline, once again, our enduring commitment to Afghanistan and to its peoples.

As we come together to support the National Unity Government, investing in civil society -
encouraging private organisations designed to serve public goals - deserves equal attention.
Such institutions can be stabilising factors and points of continuity. That is why AKDN supports
the full spectrum of civil society, devoting special attention to health, education, culture,
community governance, and public-private partnerships to deliver other services.

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