International organisations and the Afghan government agree on one thing: precious gains from the past 15 years are at risk if aid to the war-torn country dries up. At a European Union-hosted conference that begins today in Brussels, donors are expected to commit more than $3 billion annually over the next four years, a slight decrease from the previous promise. Support on that scale is deemed necessary to bolster education, women’s rights and other areas where Afghanistan has made leaps. Less altruistically, the EU has used aid as a lever to get a deal allowing it to send unlimited numbers of Afghan asylum seekers back home. The conference comes on the back of a report arguing that a big source of corruption in Afghanistan has been exorbitant aid without enough oversight. Aid feeds families but also graft and, sometimes, even warlordism.