• Final Declaration Joint Conference on Securing Afghanistan Again Kabul City, April 20, 2009
  The Massoud Foundation, the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies
  (AIAS),and the National Policy Research Center (NCPR) of Kabul University organized a joint conference on
  “Securing Afghanistan again” at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on April 20-21. The participants, including a large
  number of Afghan experts, political activists, intellectual and cultural figures, concluded the conference by issuing
  the following declaration on security from different perspectives:
• Security and Women
  1. Launching a nationwide survey about women’s security concerns
  2. The effective role of women in solving disputes in the family, village, and between ethnic groups
  (and reconciliation meetings and peace negotiations must be seriously conducted)
  3. Elevating the capacity of women in security dimensions and increasing female personnel in the security sector to
  pacify the violent and military atmosphere and investigating criminal cases
  4. Involving women in designing security policies and strategies
  5. The related organizations must pay special attention to the security needs of women
• Security from Cultural and Educational Perspectives
  1. Encouraging local and provincial councils, elders, religious scholars, and imams to engage the Taliban and other extremist
  elements in talks in order to maintain activities and schools
  2. Developing Afghan capacities and keeping schools and higher education institutions open even in war zone areas
  3. Creating a healthy teaching atmosphere for both teachers and students by improving the physical conditions of schools and
  adopting security measures to protect them and improve their quality
  4. Paying more attention to promoting the culture of peace and national reconciliation through a new education curriculum
• Security from Economic Perspective
  1. With its citizens’ support, Afghanistan should design an active, creative, and balanced regional diplomacy aimed at reviving the
  historical position of Afghanistan as a center for cultural, commercial, and economic exchanges, while re-defining and reinforcing the
  current position of Afghanistan in regional and global relations, with the appointment of a special envoy (regional envoy) to promote
  regional cooperation.
  2. The roles of the regional countries and their concerns in Afghanistan’s issues must be taken into account in all regional formulations.