Afghans strongly rejects the $220 millions #IMF loan and any other institutions giving loans to the current weak Afghanistan government which will add to the grand political corruption, crime and more conflicts. We warn the lenders that people of Afghanistan are determined to stop this government from acquiring loans and the future government to pay back. #StopTheAfghanistanDebtTrap #AfghansRejectIMFLoan #DontBorrowFromIMFforCovid19 and #ملي_کمپاین is now the national campaign of Afghans on social media in support of this
petition opposition to the IMF and other loans and changes in Aid dynamics.
We warned IMF and other lenders, if they do not listen, massive street protest will follow. On 25th June, the first wave of the street protest happened in Kabul, it will go nation wide if IMF persist being deaf-mute.
Afghans are strongly concerned about the current $220 million IMF and other institutions giving loans to the current weak Afghanistan government which will add to the grand political corruption, crime and more conflicts. Kindly
sign this petition and appeal to the Afghanistan’s Donors and Creditors: To stop giving loans or support changes in the loans and aid disbursement to save millions of innocent lives worldwide.
SUMMARY OF THE APPEAL
Stop giving loans or in addition to international organizations and Afghanistan’s government, equally empower Afghan civil society organizations and private sector in the management, disbursement, implementation and monitoring of funds based on open governance to bring peace in Afghanistan and save lives worldwide.
THE APPEAL
For the past 19 years, trillions(1) of US dollars(2) are generously donated or spent in Afghanistan by the international community, out of which the top five are United States (US), Japan, Germany and United Kingdom (UK) where each spent billions on their boots and related programs to win hearts and minds, while the fifth, India, committed herself without military to the support of a government established according to the Bonn Agreement (Afghanistan)(3) .
The allocation and disbursement of donated funds were managed by political missions and aid bodies of the respected countries; international bodies like World Bank, United Nation (UN) agencies, for or along with the Afghanistan government being the main beneficiary, because of weak or no monitoring system and or accountability, the generosity has turned to Phantom Aid. The aid helped little and did not bring stability, ease poverty or improve economic and living conditions of the common Afghans. Instead, the main beneficiaries of fund are a few hundred individuals and organizations inside and outside of Afghanistan.
Since 2001, about 43,000 Afghan civilians, 2,298 U.S. troops, 64,000 local military and police and 3,814 private contractors working for the Pentagon alone have been killed and millions of Afghans and others injured, mimed and displaced or lost their livelihood in Afghanistan (4). The year 2018 was the deadliest year for all civilians, with 3,804 deaths, including 927 children, therefore, any small positive changes to reduce tension, violence and corruption can save lives worldwide as addressed in this appeal.
APPEAL TO THE CREDITORS
As political systems are judged by their outcomes, during the past two decades majority of the aid money is given to the Afghan government, which could not provide justice or civil services even in the city centers, because of corruption and injustice, 70% of the countryside populations are forced to go to desert trials of militants and the fighting continues.
The democracy could not prevail because corrupt politicians and warlords will do anything to remain in government positions to have their share of the aid money, supporting militancy in one way or the other. A government that could never conduct an election without widespread fraud, where in a population of 40 million Afghans, the current government winner is elected by only 900 thousand votes, that also given mainly by the government servants and their families as a result of bribes or fear of losing the job. A government voted by only 2% of the Afghan population cannot be a representative or an elected government.
Therefore, we request all international creditors to not provide credit or loan to the present Afghan government, if provided, Afghan nation will not accept it as loan and will not allow the future governments to repay them, your generosity will be considered helping a playmate of your choice for the miseries of Afghans. As of this writing, without transparency and adequate usage, the Afghanistan national debt is exaggerated 1.4 billion over the internet.
With billions of aid received on behalf of Afghanistan by a government that is placed in Kabul by the Bonn Agreement, Afghanistan remains to be the least peaceful country, the least developed, ranked below 170 in the Human Development Index, the least educated where only about 20% can read and write, the most corrupt country scoring 16 points out of 100 on the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and always below that in the previous years.
Due to corruption and imposed war, nearly 70% of the population is forced to live below the poverty line. Yet, now that the Covid-19 is hitting the majority and providing more opportunities for politically correctness and corruption, many Afghans live a day on flatbreads and water only. If proper measures are not taken immediately that bread will run out soon and a human catastrophe will emerge which will be a shameful history for all of us and far more shameful for those who supported the initiatives of the last two decades. If the circumstance force you to provide credit, kindly consider the inclusiveness explained to the donors as follow:
APPEAL TO THE DONORS
The donated money plays a big role by empowering the mighty and the corrupt, therefore, it is very important and humanitarian to empower the marginalized and unfortunate by changing the management and disbursement of the donated funds to save the achievements of the last two decades, prevent a famine and another social disturbance in Afghanistan.
My article of 8 February 2002 titled BALANCED ECONOMIC CONDITIONS WILL GUARANTEE PEACE IN AFGHANISTAN and in July of 2002 leading to the establishment of Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (artf.af), and as reported by ARTF website, From 2012-2019, ARTF received US dollars 63 billion donation from 34 countries(5) of which 61.5 billion was spent according to the World Bank and the Kabul government programs, and in due course 1.6 billion is returned to the donors because they were not able to justify spending. There is no data for billions from 2002-2011.
I am glad that the ARTF was formed as I dreamed in 2002 with the objectives and fund collection mechanism fully adopted, but my recommendation for the check and balance was ignored and left to the internal or favored monitoring and evaluation systems of the involved parties, that could be one of the big reasons the Afghanistan government is consistently achieving 10-16 out of 100 points on the CPI! It is amazing that ARTF become so rich that in their audit reports they will not publish the names of any donor who has less than $100 million as contribution!
I have been watching the ARTF benefiting some for the past 18 years, but Afghanistan was not making progress as we all expected. I tried to fix the problem myself and for this reason, nominated myself for the Afghanistan’s presidential elections in 2014, 2019, see www.noorrahmanliwal.com.
There is no need to blame anyone, as in Afghanistan, result speaks for itself. We are nearly back to square one of the late 1980s of the Soviet Union invasion eras, during that time people migrated to cities and were living just on bread and water provided by the Kabul regime. Now again, nearly 80% of Afghans are living below poverty lines in the cities and cannot go to villages and the agriculture. While millions urgently need assistance, the Kabul government is forced to give only 10 flatbreads/family of at least 7 members per day for few, which could vanish sooner if not later.
Afghanistan has the wrong government for loans and Covid-19 crisis, IMF and the World Bank is taking advantage of the situation. In May 2020, $240 million from ARTF fund and $160 million from World Bank were allocated for developing reporting websites, biomatric records of the government employees and copy paste policies for some government institutions. To justify fund spending,
these activities are triplicated in several ministries. Also, billions are donated, but the Kabul government is asking the IMF for $220 million emergency loan for Covid-19!
Following our #StopTheAfghanistanDebtTrap since 2019, public and opposition politician are rejecting acquisition of any loan for the current government. Legislative body Wolisi Jirga (House of the People), also rejected the #IMF loan, but members Mshranw Jirga (House of Elders), who are occupying their seats despite having their parliament terms ending twice, approved the loan. They will support any government wrong doing to have their seats! Therefore, no matter how many donations or loans are taken with the present governance mechanism in place, it will always be insufficient and wasted because of no accountability and transparency.
Therefore, now in these difficult times we all need to forgive and forget the past, and focus solely on the present and future to save millions of innocent lives that are on the verge of being lost, not because of COVID-19, but poverty, corruption and political correctness of few. Currently, we are not able to change the attitude of the Afghanistan government and its aid-hungry giant employees and warlords. Therefore, through this appeal, we are reaching the respected donors and creditors to help the Afghan people and support the inclusion of non-profit and private sectors in the implementation and disbursement of the Phantom Aid to make it more productive:
Presently the donations are directly spent by some donors and some are collected by ARTF like establishment and disbursed according to the demands and programs of the Kabul Government. For transparency and proper utilization, we recommend for the national programs, in addition to the public sector (Afghan government), the Afghan private sector and the civil society organization should be given equal shares of the fund to be allocated according to the priorities and initiatives they see required for the Afghan society as follows.
Public Sector
In addition to public revenue, the government will spend its share of the donations according to their priorities for law and order and good governance, but open governance rules should be attached to all aid spending.
Private Sector
Afghan private sector representatives as the second party, will have their own share of donated funds to be prioritized and managed, for establishing business development services that are important for the society, such initiatives are not new and well experienced under "Matching Grants Projects" by some international organization. All activities, initiatives and funding will be public in nature and national property, do not think that we are funding private businesses, only the elected private sector representative will prioritize and manage donations voluntarily.
Civil Society Sector (NGO)
The third party, the Afghan non-profit and civil society organization sector will set their priorities and spend the aid resources according to their initiatives and priorities.
This will result in a proper wealth distribution and will stop war on the phantom aid resource for which all the warlords, corrupt politicians and factions are fighting and using government positions to have a share in. Based on open governance, private sector and civil society organizations will establish principles for which public sector will be forced to comply and hence this will stop the corruption and will end hostilities in Afghanistan.
All three sector representatives will jointly establish a central repository of monitoring and evaluation based on open governance principals and will be called the Trust Fund Evaluation and Monitoring Unit (TFEMU).
We undersigned while appreciate the generous contributions of the honorable donors to the people of Afghanistan during the last two decades, please support these small changes which will bring significant changes to the life of every Afghan and will help in ending the decade long imposed war.
And God bless you
Noor Rahman Liwal, Afghanistan Presidential Candidate 2019 and Presidential Nominee 2014, an Afghan philanthropist, entrepreneur, inventor, leading IT expert and businessman, owner of multi-national companies, Pashto TV, worked with governments, Mujahideen, United Nations Agencies and NGOs, can be reached at noorrahmanliwal.com and @nrliwal.
1. Out of the US's 100 billion(bn) dollars only $16.5bn are used on reconstruction, $85bn is wasted by the Kabul government and $3.9bn sent by US annually where 83% is spent on military purposes of “peace and security”. Japan is the second biggest donor of troops, spent over $92 billion. Germany being the third largest troop contributor, sent more than 100,000 soldiers, and contributes about 20% to the EU efforts, cost over $2.5bn. UK on forth position, sent $1.3bn in aid thousands of troops.India ranked fifth, has invested more than $2bn in infrastructure and support of the Kabul government
( data from internet ).
2. Data from Internet.
3. Bonn Agreement, empowering some warlords over the others and cementing the warlordism forever in Afghanistan.
4. Source fcnl.org
5. As per ARTF.af/internet, countries and their contributions are expressed in billions(bn) of dollars: United Kingdom $3.8, Australia $2.7, United States $8.6, Norway $14.2, Netherlands $2.2, Sweden $ 10.7, Canada $ 2.0, Germany $ 3.8, Switzerland $1.3, Korea, Denmark $8.2, Belgium $0.3, Italy $ 0.1, Austria $2.7, Ireland, Hungary, Finland $3.0, France $ 1.4, New Zealand, Spain, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Colombia, Other like world bank and sovereign donors $2.5 Billion, information will be updated on receipt from original sources.
