Afghanistan Program:
Policy Trialogues
The Delhi Policy Group launched an Afghanistan-India-Pakistan Trialogue in 2009. A first of its kind the trialogue brought together around 50 policymakers, analysts and Track II representatives from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, to review changes and progress (if any) in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan relations, and to see whether there were new opportunities for the three countries to work together trilaterally, or in parallel bilaterals, to spur stalled and/or obstacle-strewn peace processes between them.
A number of concrete suggestions emerged from the discussion, for action at both the government and civil society level, some of which could be taken immediately and others in the median or long term. By and large there were more suggestions for bilateral action, and less for trilateral – yet it was agreed that the trialogue format was an important means of trust-building, and it would be helpful if developments on bilateral tracks could be regularly shared in a trilateral forum.
|
Delhi June 6-8, 2009
 |
The Delhi trialogue was attended by 50 Afghan, Indian and Pakistani policymakers and analysts. Key issues discussed were various facets of trilateral cooperation, common threats and challenges, common measure to mitigate them, trilateral cooperation in the wider regional and international context with the emerging US, EU, Russian, Chinese and Iranian policies; and trialogue participants had an 1 and 1/2 hour off the record session with Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. |
Kabul December 6-8, 2009
The Kabul trialogue was held in two separate sessions. In the first, closed door sessions attended by around 30 policymakers and analysts, a review of events since the Delhi trialogue was conducted and follow up issues that were discussed included security cooperation, counter-terrorism, reconciliation, identification of areas for trilateral cooperation (in the short, median and long term), ideas on how tensions can be de-escalated and/or trust built and misperceptions to be cleared up. The Report of the 2 trialogues is now available The second session of the trialogue was jointly organized with Centre for Strategic Studies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Afghani stan and was addressed by Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta and a welcome message from President Karzai.
|
Student Exchange
The student exchange program, which sought to foster dialogue on peace-making and confidence-building amongst the new generation, was hosted in Delhi, Simla, Kabul, Lahore and Islamabad. A total of 29 students, from Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in India, Kinnaird College, Quaid-e-Azam, Punjab and Peshawar universities in Pakistan, and six universities in Afghanistan participated in the program.
A series of academic lectures and interactive sessions, which included briefings on the resp- |
 |
|
|
ective Afghanistan-India, India-Pakistan and Afghanistan-Pakistan peace processes, were organized for the group in relevant governmental and civil society institutions (parliaments, think tanks, elections and human rights commissions, universities). A considerable amount of time was reserved for inter-student interactions, including a simulation/role play exercise on Afghanistan. |
Young Professionals Capacity Building
This 10 day training program was aimed at young Afghan professionals as important stakeholders in peace-building policy and its implementation in Afghanistan today, and was conducted by the Delhi Policy Group and the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia. This initiative meant to further channelise the efforts made by young Afghans by providing them with an opportunity to analyze and study the issues of peace building generally and in Afghanistan in particular. It was attended by 25 young Afghan professionals from the civil services, attorney-general’s office, different ministries, the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission, the Department of Refugees & Repatriation, the EU Election Observation Mission, UNAMA, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and media. The program combined lectures and group discussions on such subjects as minority rights, parliamentary, constitution-building and election procedures with an exercise in writing a policy brief for decision-makers on any one issue. |
Women’s Trialogue
The idea of an Afghanistan-India-Pakistan Women’s Trialogue was first mooted on the sidelines of a conference on “Women of South Asia: Partners in Development” held at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, in March 2009. |
 |
Participants from the three countries met separately at this conference to explore ways in which they could work together on issues of common concern. . A follow-up conference was held in Kabul in October (October 2-3, 2009), at which it was decided that the three countries would set up a joint Women’s Peace Commission which will be formally launched in Islamabad in 2010. The Kabul women’s trialogue was attended by around 70 women from A.., I…, P.., including parliamentarians, businesswomen, media, civil society and think tank members. |
|
|
| |
|
