Was it all for naught?

When you don't know what to do, you create a study group; on a larger scale, you call a conference. For two days, NGOs, aid organizations and leading politicians discussed how to cope with the mess in Afghanistan with civilian means. Innovative ideas, however, were rare, although they were sorely needed.

The balance of 13 years of international commitment is shattering. Afghanistan is still 90 percent dependent on international aid. Corruption, crime and political violence are still words the world associates with Afghanistan. In three weeks' time, NATO's most costly mission to date will end, and while most of the soldiers in the camps are already busily packing their things, already back home in their minds, a new wave of violence has hit the country. Were 13 years and billions in aid money in vain?

Not completely: Schools were built, and education, in particular for girls, has improved. Thanks to a lively media presence, the widespread use of smart phones and the Internet, the Afghan people are more closely connected to the world than ever before. And they have shown that they are willing and able to live democracy. They hurried to the ballot boxes in droves to vote for their president and showed exceptional patience during the six-month process with two rounds of voting. While there was widespread voter fraud, the voters were not to blame, but the leaders in Kabul and their cronies in the election offices.

The international financial donors are tired, however, and new pledges were not made in London. The Afghan NGOs and foreign aid organizations have already begun to notice that funding is getting scarcer. The governments in the West still spend a lot of money, but they have capped the budgets for the country's civilian reconstruction and democratization. They prefer to invest in visible hardware to prove their success to the taxpayers and voters at home. The millions pledged by Germany are geared to road construction, electrification, hospitals - and of course on security.

That won't change if the Afghan NGOs continue their navel-gazing, each intent on doing their own thing, if need be on a reduced level.

A new program for women here, a peace initiative there - what's lacking is a comprehensive strategy that could convince donors and bundle all the forces. That's what the country needs more desperately than new financial aid.

No progress was made in London. But liberal teachers, engineers and journalists can only stay in the country if a positive, committed and strong civilian society develops. You might be skeptical in view of the daily violence there - but the Afghans still want to make it work. I recently asked a young colleague from Kabul why he had returned to Afghanistan despite having graduated from Oxford and he simply said: "Because it's my country!"