New Development Partnership

The United States is committed to strengthening its partnership with Afghanistan over the coming years to ensure that development assistance from the United States continues to achieve positive results and aligns with Afghanistan’s priorities as outlined in the 2014 Realizing Self-Reliance paper.

The New Development Partnership reflects more flexible and timely financial assistance, and contributes to the United States’ commitment to providing at least 50 percent of development assistance on-budget.

The United States has committed to make available up to $800 million in current and future funds to support the New Development Partnership, subject to availability of funds.

Afghanistan has committed to achieve 40 results, which include a mix of reforms, actions, and results that contribute towards the accomplishment of three objectives:  

  • Ensuring fiscal sustainability leading to reduced dependence on aid. By increasing revenue and tariff collection and getting more businesses and individuals engaged in the tax-paying formal sector of the economy, the government can increase its own income.
  • Building better governance by tackling the underlying drivers of corruption and ensuring that public money gets spent on services that improve the lives of the Afghan people. This will be achieved through a combination of structural reforms and legal actions. Reforming the public procurement system, improving the budget and oversight process, using e-payment technology and other measures that are intended to make government more trusted and accountable.
  • Reducing poverty by improving the level of basic services for the poor; improving land tenure security; reducing the high transportation costs that discourage investment in rural productivity; and improving women’s economic autonomy and access to formal sector employment.

The United States will provide $20 million for the successful achievement of each development result, as demonstrated by fulfillment of agreed-upon indicators, at a rate up to $200 million per year over the next four years.

The New Development Partnership is to be managed through two sets of meetings:  1) semi-annual working group meetings in March and September; and 2) annual high-level steering committee meetings held in December.

Linking U.S. assistance funding to achievable and important development results enables the Afghan government to implement its reform agenda, while increasing Afghan ownership and transitioning to a more Afghan-led development approach.