Short-Term Foreign Aid Programs and NGOs Replace Major Infrastructural Projects

The diplomatic communication channels are all closed to Afghanistan and NGOs have turned to alternatives for communication with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The group is even not capable of maintaining orders within its own ranks without NGOs.

Afghanistan is in the worst possible situation. Nearly 34 million people are desperately in need of better living conditions, including food security, work and education. This is while one of the most notorious and dogmatic terrorist military group in the history has overthrown the government and seized power who cares about nothing, but their own irrational, primitive and inhuman interpretation of the religion.

It has been ten months that Afghanistan has been isolated from the international politics and agendas. The economy of the country has been totally dependent to foreign aid and NGO funded money. The private sector and public institutions have either stopped operations or have minimized the resources. A huge financial gape is created which are not possible to be filled by the NGO funded interventions.  After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, NGOs ceased operations for a while, but gradually resumed operations with a shift from foundational infrastructural works to more of short term survival project interventions across the country. Now the most important player in Afghanistan, even more important than the Taliban and global terrorists are the NGO operators. Without NGOs, Taliban leaders will not be able to meet the basic needs of the people, nor they are capable of  maintaining minimal order in their own ranks.

At the same time, NGOs have filled the vacuum left by the international community’s lack of diplomatic presence. Many institutions and countries use NGOs as communication channels. In the absence of diplomatic relations, the cessation of aid through official channels, and the collapse of the economy, the Taliban receive funding from NGOs and liaise with influential institutions and governments. People, who are suffering from extreme poverty and whose minimum sources of income and employment are collapsing, are also looking to institutions to save themselves from starvation. Similarly, some political actors outside the Taliban consider the current situation as an opportunity and are trying to connect to diverse channels of global aid so as to enrich their accounts. There are many educated and skilled young people, as well as influential people who, instead of thinking of political solutions, are negotiating with the Taliban to find ways to take advantages of vast sums of lucrative projects. This is how from Taliban commanders to non-Taliban politicians and the country’s professional cadres have become activists in the NGO industry.

The terrorism industry also plays a role in isolating Afghanistan. The rivalries between the world powers in our region have been the cause of the growth of terrorism. Now that the hotbeds of war in the Middle East and North Africa have cooled, the fighters and terrorist forces left over from those wars need “shelter” and a safe environment. The shutdown of all ovens makes it difficult for the international community to manage terrorism and increases the likelihood that the terrorist will emerge from another locations.

It seems that global terrorists, the factions involved in executing the proxy wars, are preparing and accounting for how to deal with the scourge in Afghanistan. The fate of the Ukraine war, the relationship between the West and China, the process of the Iranian nuclear talks and the current developments in the Arab countries will affect the path that our country will take. Afghanistan has now become an arsenal of terrorism. In this arsenal are stored different and sometimes contradictory terrorist spectrums.

Let’s wait and see how our life in limbo would change, when and at what cost? Will the people of Afghanistan be able to take control of their own faith in the near future and move toward prosperity and democracy?

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Source: Hasht-e Subh Daily