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9.a What istheInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) and what is itsrelevance toaid to Afghanistan?
The IMF was created in July 1945, originally with 45 members, with a goal to stabilize exchange rates and assist the reconstruction of the world's international payment system. Countries contributed to a pool which could be borrowed from, on a temporary basis, by countries with payment imbalances. The IMF helped the world stabilize the economic system. The IMF works to improve the economies of its member countries and describes itself as "an organization of 187 countries (as of July 2010), working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty". It also offers highly leveragedloans, mainly to poorer countries. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C., United States. The IMF is relevant to Afghanistan because having agreements and an IMF program will give confidence to donors about the government’s fiscal and monetary policies. Currently some donor funding is being withheld due to the lack of a program. Reforms requested by IMF help to improve government performance through providing time-bound benchmarks by which the government must implement reforms. This in turn leads to greater accountability of the government to its citizens.