Donors:  European Union and Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs / Sida
Implementing Agency: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
Duration: June 2019 – December 2020
Budget: EUR 6 613 000

Context

EU APSM was launched to contribute to delivering on the EU offer made at the Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in November 2018 which, among other elements, has a focus on the need to make the peace process inclusive. On 8 April 2019, the Council of the European Union adopted the Conclusions reaffirming the EU’s readiness to offer this support. This is also in line with the 2017 EU-Afghanistan Strategy.

In June 2019, the European Union (EU) launched the Afghanistan Peace Support Mechanism (EU APSM) together with its implementing partner Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency). The purpose of the mechanism is to provide a flexible and quick responding instrument to support efforts for an inclusive Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

Objective

The objective of EU APSM is to contribute to the preparation and implementation of an inclusive Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, informed by and responsive to the needs and concerns of all Afghans, including women, youth and other important stakeholders of the Afghan population, both in Afghanistan and abroad.

Approach

The mechanism has the following key areas of intervention:

1. Confidence-building measures: EU APSM supports initiatives at local and national level that aim to enhance trust within the Afghan population across the country and in neighboring countries, overcome divisions and conflicts, build consensus around issues of peace, and deal with grievances.
2. Connecting Afghan stakeholders: EU APSM supports initiatives that aim to connect stakeholder groups, from governmental agencies and/or civil society, through facilitating sustainable formats of consultation, dialogue and communication, and enabling the peace actors across Afghanistan to participate in all levels of the process - from grass-roots to high level political negotiations.
3. Peace education: EU APSM supports initiatives that aim to develop a culture of peace and bring awareness about peace related issues, through peace campaigns, media programmes, support to cultural activities or similar issues.
4. Technical, thematic and logistical support to peace efforts: EU APSM has the capacity to provide technical and thematic support, capacity building as well as limited logistical support to ad-hoc meetings, events or other activities to facilitate encounters between various Afghan stakeholders.

EU APSM gives priority to initiatives that put broad inclusivity as the main focus.

Contact: EU-APSM@sida.se