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Leading Afghanistan-based organizations want the World Bank and its partners to spend more than $ 1.2bn to pay teachers and government workers and prevent further collapse.
Save the Children is one of the organizations initiating the appeal, and is urging officials this week to provide more humanitarian assistance to areas including education and health, as Taliban delegates open talks in Norway.
The UN is already seeking $ 4.4bn in emergency aid to alleviate poverty and hunger in the winter. But there is growing concern over the failure to support the unpaid salaries of government workers including teachers, health care workers and sanitation workers who are essential to the country’s sustainable development.
Under pressure from countries including the US to refrain from transferring money to Taliban regime after the end of August last year, the World Bank suspended funds promised to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, a major foreign exchange operator and other donors.
Bank officials released $ 280m for immediate assistance in December and urged officials to look for ways to access aid beyond humanitarian aid. But it is not expected to have a new meeting to discuss options until mid-February.
Gwen Hines, chief executive of Save the Children UK, has called on the US and UK to press for closure of the trust fund to support education and health. “It’s cruel and everyone waits for everyone. But people have to go through the winter or they will starve to death. Parents are selling their children. We can’t wait, we have to take action now.
He noted that while it was not possible for donors to support Taliban-led payments, there were examples in other countries such as Yemen and Somalia where the World Bank had transferred payments to government officials through UN agencies.
Kevin Watkins, a colleague at the London School of Economics, says: “We need development funding and humanitarian assistance. There are many examples of how a bank can allocate money. The consequence of this failure lies in the fact that human life is at stake and education opportunities are being destroyed without real purpose. ”
250,000 Afghan teachers are in debt for several months as they continue to work, and many have joined the movement to escape the financial crisis.
A local official said the system was running out of steam: “Teachers are going to sell fruit in Tehran or cab drivers in Quetta. [in Pakistan]. We are teaching the Taliban not to let girls go to school while we are making sure that schools are closed because teachers are not paid.
Seddiqa, a teacher at a girls’ high school in Kabul who is still in school despite her or her unpaid civil service, said some of her classmates have left the country and others are selling furniture and refrigerators for survival. . “Everywhere the Afghan people see what is happening,” he said.
A World Bank spokesman said: “We are in discussions with the Council and development agencies on solutions and to provide essential health care, education and life for the people of Afghanistan.”
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