The international community must help realize lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan. Comprehensive methods should be taken to address major challenges, while focusing on winning the hearts of the Afghan people. Besides, parties concerned should make further efforts to assist the Afghan Government in strengthening its security capacity, so it can take responsibility for maintaining peace and stability.

Ethnic reconciliation

Afghanistan is a country with many ethnic groups, and there are feuds between many of these groups, especially between the Pashtuns in the south and other ethnic groups in the north. The Taliban has said it is fighting for equal rights for the Pashtun people, and has become entrenched in Pashtun-populated areas in the south. The country's stability must therefore be based on the reconciliation of the relationships between different ethnic groups.

Soon after Karzai was reelected president, he declared a reconciliation and reintegration plan, offering an olive branch to the Taliban. He hoped to carry out direct dialogue with high-ranking Taliban leaders, while offering employment opportunities to middle- and low-ranking Taliban militants so that they would lay down their weapons and reintegrate into Afghan society.

Aiming for national reconciliation, the Afghan Government held a "peace jirga" in June, inviting 1,400 domestic delegates and 200 foreign delegates. In his speech at the conference, Karzai called on the Taliban to give up violence, cut off connections with international terrorist networks and integrate into mainstream society as soon as possible. He said Afghan people in all circles should make active efforts to realize peace and stability. Karzai also established the High Peace Council in September. Council members include civil society representatives, women, and figures from the opposition and government. The council has been put in charge of negotiations with the Taliban.

Karzai's plan faces many hurdles, though. First, donor countries, like the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan, could not afford the financial assistance they pledged in support of the plan. For example, the U.S. Congress approved $100 million to support Afghanistan. As of August, only $200,000 was given to the country. Fund shortages are a main reason the plan cannot be implemented effectively.

Second, not all Afghans are willing to offer amnesty to the Taliban. Some fear the move may nullify the progress made in human rights, social development, domestic governance and the media sector in the past nine years.

Finally, the United States and the Afghan Government have differing opinions on how to treat the Taliban. Karzai doesn't want to solve the Taliban issue in a solely military manner, but the U.S. side disagrees.

The international community should support the Afghan Government's implementation of its reconciliation and reintegration plan, while allowing the Afghans to play a leading role in the process. Afghanistan will experience true reconciliation only when related parties reach mutual understanding through dialogue and negotiation. The international community should also support the Afghan Government's campaign against corruption and help enhance its administrative capacity.

Economic development

Afghanistan has made certain achievements in its reconstruction over the past nine years. In 2009, the country's economic growth rate reached 22 percent. Domestic infrastructure construction is moving forward, and a number of large-scale energy and natural resource projects have been launched. However, the country relies heavily on international assistance, and less than 20 percent of the pledged financial assistance has materialized. This seriously hinders the reconstruction process.

Worse still, Afghanistan's economic development hasn't really benefited its people, most of whom remain in poverty. Currently, Afghanistan's per-capita GDP is only $502, the world's lowest. The country's unemployment rate is as high as 35 percent, and this has fueled the spread of terrorist and extremist forces.

Afghanistan needs to redouble reconstruction efforts to improve people's livelihoods. The international community should welcome the Afghan Government's prioritization and implementation plan for the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, and offer support to the plan.

Donor nations should honor the commitments made at the London conference on Afghanistan in January and increase development aid channeled through the Afghan Government to 50 percent over the next two years. The international community should help enhance the abilities of both the Afghan Government and the Afghan people to create a stable and prosperous country. It should also put more emphasis on infrastructure and other projects that will bring immediate benefits to ordinary Afghans. And it must support the Afghan Government's endeavor to ban drugs, and assist with its efforts to replace the poppy plant with other agricultural crops.

The author is a researcher of South Asian studies with the China Institute of International Studies