How can the Afghan Government and the international community bring home to Afghans even more visibly the fact that the country's reconstruction is the top priority? Quick-impact reconstruction and development projects – roads, bridges or irrigation systems – play a major role here. To further increase their effectiveness, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Foreign Office have set up a joint additional fund, with an initial total amount of 500,000 euro.

Projects financed by this fund will make the Afghan Government's efforts and the Federal Government support for the local population more quickly visible. Afghans will be able to see for themselves that their government and the international community are taking concrete measures to improve their quality of life.

The fund will primarily be earmarked for the unstable districts in Kunduz Province, where most of the security-related incidents take place within Germany's area of responsibility in northern Afghanistan; regular attacks are launched on Afghan and German security forces. Funding will initially benefit Char Dara District, which is key to the stability of Kunduz Province as a whole.

The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development will each provide 250,000 euro for the fund, while the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) will implement the projects, on behalf of the Federal Government, together with local Afghan partners. The people in the districts concerned will propose projects, which will then be selected by the local German ministerial representatives together with the provincial and district government.