Select committee: International Relations and Defence Committee
Conclusion 123
2nd Report - The UK and Afghanistan
Published 13 Jan 2021
Paragraph 561
International Relations and Defence Committee The UK and Afghanistan All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The UK and international donors face extraordinarily complex and sensitive problems when considering future aid to Afghanistan if the Taliban is brought into the government: Around 50% of the UK’s ODA is provided to the Afghan government as on-budget contributions, via the ARTF. If the UK were to maintain funding, this would be channelled via a government including Taliban representatives. The Government’s position is that any future UK funding to Afghanistan will be conditional on respect for human rights, including women and minorities. We are not convinced that it would be able to enforce this conditionality, beyond threats to withdraw funding entirely. The Taliban shows little sign of being willing to respond to such pressure. The UK would have to choose between its commitment to supporting the Afghan government’s ability to function and provide basic services, and its commitment not to fund a regime which undermines the human rights of Afghan citizens. UK ODA to Afghanistan should be conditional on the recipient not supporting, or maintaining links with, proscribed terrorist organisations. It is not clear that the Taliban would uphold such a commitment.
From: International Relations and Defence Committee, 2nd Report - The UK and Afghanistan, paragraph 561, 13 January 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 March 2021 (deadline 13 March 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says Afghanistan "remains a priority" and agrees with a number of the Committee's conclusions, while stating that it does not judge counter-narcotics efforts to have "ultimately failed" and that the cut in aid spending is temporary.
- On a multinational approach, the government says it "agree[s] with the committee's recommendation that the UK should seek to reinforce the multinational approach" and "will continue to do so".
- On counter-narcotics, it does "not judge that UK and international counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan have 'ultimately failed'" but recognises "the many challenges which continue to inhibit all such efforts".
- On aid, it states it will "temporarily move to a target of spending 0.5%" of GNI on ODA rather than 0.7%, and "will return to 0.7% when the fiscal situation allows".
- On interpreters, the new Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy is "expected to be launched following changes to the immigration legislation in April 2021"; third-country relocations are "expected" not to be possible, with discretion applied "on a case-by-case basis".