Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies held a 3-day conference in cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from 4-6 May 2015 at the AISS office in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The conference was aimed at identifying the challenges faced by the Afghan civil society organizations in the coming decade of development and explore solutions to strengthen civil society. The conference was attended by 25 representatives of various civil society organizations from across the country. The outcome of the conference was shared during a press conference at the end of the conference. It was emphasized by the participants that corruption and lack of government responsiveness are some of the biggest challenges for strengthening democracy and in order to overcome these challenges, government of Afghanistan must take a serious action.
The participants also emphasized on forming a Loya Jirga by making an amendment to the constitution. Civil society organizations should have their say in policy-making and there must be women representation in all the processes. Also, all this information related to the amendment of the constitution should be shared with the Afghan people and the civil society organizations. In addition to this, religious scholars, tribal elders and youth should also be involved in the peace process.