[Joint statement] International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and State Donors: Stop loans and fully reassess Myanmar policy in light of coup d’état Do not fund the military junta or its cronies

    To the international community, and in particular, IFIs and States,

    We urge you, in the strongest terms, to immediately freeze and comprehensively reassess your lending relationship with Myanmar, in light of the 1 February 2021 coup d’état by the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw). The coup was illegal, even under the Tatmadaw-designed 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, and IFIs would be acting against the rule of law by acknowledging the junta. The Tatmadaw has long carried out atrocity crimes and rights abuses, documented by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

    We demand that you immediately halt lending obligations, suspend disbursements, pending grants and loans across all sovereign and non-sovereign operations, until conclusive confirmation that these do not legitimize military rule. Further, that you recall loans linked to the military junta, its businesses (including Myanmar Economic Corporation, MEC, and the Myanma Economic Holdings Limited, MEHL), military-linked crony companies, or companies linked to individuals who have been internationally sanctioned. Thirdly, reassess efficacy of loans to ensure they safeguard the rights of communities and their environment, and protect civil space.

    Finance, whether direct or indirect, should absolutely not benefit the above-listed actors, and thorough due diligence should be conducted on private sector loans to identify any pre-existing or new linkages between clients and military companies. Humanitarian aid that directly assists struggling and vulnerable people should be distinguished from finance that could enable the junta to hang onto illegitimate power.

    We urge you to:

    • Stand in solidarity with Myanmar people in: (1) asserting their democratic rights, including through civil disobedience; (2) upholding the rule of law; (3) protecting democratic process and results, including the 2020 elections; and (4) ensuring the preservation of civic space and freedom of journalists and activists (including more than 300 detained following the coup) and workers, especially those on loan projects.
    • Respect calls to the international community to condemn the coup and military violence, and align yourselves with strong targeted sanctions against the military and its cronies—not against the people.
    • Work together to issue a joint IFI statement, to avoid conflicting messages. State clearly, unequivocally, and boldly that you will not compromise your development support in Myanmar by working with the junta, including on COVID-19 response—rather than undermining democracy with weak statements (such as the World Bank’s “serious situation” language). Action otherwise would normalize the coup, facilitate military abuses, and renege on commitments to peace and inclusion.
    • Closely monitor private clients and public projects to ensure respect for labor standards, and make clear that retaliation or discrimination for freedom of assembly, association, or political views will not be tolerated. Press for immediate release of project workers deprived of their rights by the junta. Protect the rights of health workers, who were among the first to stand up against the coup, in the interest of democracy and effective COVID-19 response.
    • Arrange a conference call between involved IFIs (International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), Myanmar Civil Society Organizations, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), ethnic political parties, and ethnic leaders.

    Sincerely,

    The undersigned:

    1. ခ ြေလှမ််းသစ်လူမှုဖ ွံ့ ဖဖ ်းခ ်း
    2. ညီခမ ်ဒူ
    3. တ ခို့တ ငသ် ူလယ်သမ ်းအသင်း်
    4. ဒ ခ မက န် က်
    5. ပည ပါ မီစ ကကညို့်တ က်
    6. ပ င ်ို့ဖြူလယ်ခ မက န ် က်
    7. မခက ်းတ င််းခဒသကကီ်းလူငယ်က န် က်အဖ ွံ့ပည ပါ မီက သ လ် ပ အဖ ွံ့
    8. မခက ်းခဒသဖ ွံ့ ဖဖ ်းတ ်းတက်ခ ်းစင်တ
    9. မဇ္ဇ မနှလ ်းသ ်းလူငယ်အဖ ွံ့
    10. ခ မလတ်မ ်းဆက်အင်စတီက
    11. မ တထ ီလ ြေရ င်အလင််းတန််းအဖ ွံ့
    12. ခ ွှေ ြေခသသို့ခတ င်သူက န် က်
    13. ခ ွှေ ြေခသသို့ခတ င်သူက န် က်(ခ ွှေဘ ြေရ င်)
    14. ခ ွှေကတ ဂ ခတ င်သူလယ်သမ ်းအဖ ွံ့
    15. ခ ခွှေတ ငတ် က်နယ်ခတ ငသ် ူအို့ ်းမ န်ဝမ််းတ င််းဖမ ွံ့နယ်အဖ ွံ့
    16. လမ််း ပကကယ်LGBT Group
    17. ဝ င််းခမ ်ဖမ ွံ့နယ်လ ်းဆ င် သျှမ််းလူငယ်မ ်းစည််းလ ်းညီည တ်ခ ်းအဖ ွံ့
    18. Action Committee for Democracy Development
    19. Ahlin Tagar Rural Development Organization
    20. Airavati Organisation
    21. Alinsaetamarn Library & Resource Center
    22. Alliance of Masses and Basic Sectors for Unity and Harmony – Initiatives for Normalization and
    Advancement for Human Security (AMBUH-INAH)
    23. Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma)
    24. Area Peace and Development Forward
    25. Arr Marn Thit Social Development Organization
    26. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
    27. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
    28. Asia Pacific Transgender Network
    29. Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development
    30. AYY Famar Union
    31. Ayyar Pyo May Women Development Organization
    32. Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED)
    33. Bank Information Center
    34. Banmaw Youth Network
    35. Bee House
    36. Beyond Borders Malaysia
    37. Blue Banner
    38. Both ENDS
    39. Building and Wood Workers International Asia Pacific
    40. Building and Woodworkers International
    41. Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation (BIRUDO)
    42. Burma Campaign UK
    43. Burma Human Rights Network
    44. Burma Task Force/Justice for All
    45. Candle light youth group
    46. Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University
    47. Child Prevention Network
    48. Children on the Edge
    49. Chin Agency
    50. Chin MATA Working Group
    51. Chin Resources Center
    52. Chin Women Development Organization
    53. Civil Health and Development Network (CHDN)
    54. Community Association Development
    55. Comreg
    56. Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention
    57. Crude Accountability, USA
    58. CSW
    59. Dawei Development Association
    60. Defenders in Development
    61. Doe Myae Civil Social Development Organization
    62. Education International
    63. Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF)
    64. Equipo Jurídico por los Derechos Humanos
    65. Equitable Cambodia
    66. Famar Agricultural Network
    67. Farmers And Land Rights Action Group
    68. Farmers Development and Environmental Watch Group
    69. Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (Vikes)
    70. FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
    71. Foundation for the Development of Agusanons, Inc.
    72. Free Burma Campaign (South Africa) (FBC(SA))
    73. Free Education Service Organization
    74. Freedom and Labor Action Group
    75. Freedom House
    76. Fresh Eyes
    77. Fund for Congolese Women
    78. Future Light Center
    79. Future Light Social Development Organization
    80. Future Star Youth Organization
    81. Future Women Association (FWA)
    82. Gender and Development in Practice (GADIP)
    83. Gender Action
    84. Gender Alliance for Development Centre
    85. Gender and Development Advocates (GANDA) Filipinas
    86. Gender and Development for Cambodia (GADC)
    87. Golden Future Social Development Organization
    88. Golden Heart Organization
    89. Green Advocates International
    90. Heartland Initiative, Inc.
    91. Helping Hands (ကူညီခသ လက်မ ်း (ခဒသဖ ွံ့ ဖဖ ်းခ ်းအဖ ွံ့)
    92. Hkumzup Development Committee
    93. Hope For Children Development Organization
    94. Htoi Gender and Development Foundation
    95. Htum Thit Sa Rural Development Organization
    96. Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM)
    97. IFI Watch Myanmar
    98. iLaw (Thailand)
    99. Inclusive Development International
    100. IndustriALL Global Union
    101. Info Birmanie
    102. Institute for Asian Democracy
    103. International Accountability Project (IAP)
    104. International Campaign for the Rohingya
    105. International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
    106. International Rivers
    107. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
    108. International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), Queen Mary University of London
    109. International Trade Union Confederation
    110. International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific)
    111. Justice Movement for Community Inlay
    112. Kachin State Women Network
    113. Kachin Women Union
    114. Kan Chay Arr Man Fishery Development Organization
    115. Kanpetlet Land Development Organization
    116. Karen Environmental and Social Action Network
    117. Karen Youth Network
    118. Karen Youth Rangoon
    119. Karenni Evergreen (KEG)
    120. Karenni Human Rights Group
    121. Karenni Law and Human Right Committee (KnLHRC)
    122. Karenni Mobile Health Committee (KnMHC)
    123. Karenni National Women Organization (KNWO)
    124. Karenni National Youth Organization (KNYO)
    125. Karenni Refugee Committee (KnRC)
    126. Karenni Social Welfare and Development Center (KSWDC)
    127. Kaung Myat Hnalonethar Health Care Organization
    128. Kayah Baptist Association- Christian Social Service and Development Department (KBA-CSSDD)
    129. Kayah Earthrights Action Network- KEAN
    130. Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
    131. Khumi Affairs Coordination Council (KACC)
    132. LAIN Technical Support Group
    133. Lamyan Farmers Network
    134. LatButta Famar Union
    135. League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)
    136. Legal Aid For Human rights
    137. LICADHO
    138. Light Social Development Organization
    139. Lin lake Kyal Social Development Organization
    140. Magway Region Development and Justice Organization (MRDJO)
    141. Manushya Foundation
    142. Matu Women Organization
    143. Metta Development Foundation
    144. Migrant CARE
    145. Mindspeaks.co
    146. Mine Free Myanmar
    147. MiningWatch Canada
    148. Missionary Oblates
    149. Muditar Organization
    150. Mung chying rawt jat အခ ြေြေ လူထ ဖ ွံ့ ဖဖ ်းခ ်းအဖ ွံ့
    151. Myanmar Health Assistants Union
    152. Myanmar Muslim Youth Association (Kachin State)
    153. National Fisheries Solidarity
    154. National Network for Education Reform
    155. NGO Forum on ADB
    156. No Business With Genocide
    157. Nonviolence International Canada
    158. Northern Spectrum Youth Association
    159. Odhikar
    160. Open Development Foundation
    161. Oyu Tolgoi Watch
    162. Pace on Peaceful Pluralism (PoPP)
    163. Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
    164. Pan Thi Kyo LGBT Organization
    165. Paung ku
    166. Paungsee Myittar Organization
    167. Peace World Gender Orgnaization
    168. Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor
    169. Phyu Sin Myittar Social Development Organization
    170. Pone Yate Sit Regional Development Organization
    171. Progressive Voice
    172. Project HEARD
    173. Project SEVANA South-East Asia
    174. Public Services International (PSI)
    175. Recourse
    176. Rivers without Boundaries
    177. Rivers without Boundaries Coalition- Mongolia
    178. Rule of law watch group
    179. Rural Social Development Organization
    180. Sarnar Kyi Phyu Social Development Organization
    181. SarPhyu Famar Network
    182. Saytana Shaesaung Youth Organization
    183. SCVG
    184. Shan Women Development Network
    185. Shwe Min Thar Foundation
    186. Shwe Nathar Famar Development Organization
    187. Shwechinthae Social Service Group (ShweBo)
    188. Siemenpuu Foundation
    189. Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
    190. Southern Youth Development Organization
    191. Summer Shulter Library
    192. Swam Su Ti Rural Development Organization
    193. Tha Pyay Education Foundation
    194. The Khumi Institute (TKI)
    195. The Nyein Foundation
    196. The Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (Vikes)
    197. The PLAN: Public Legal Aid Network
    198. The Seagull: Human Rights, Peace & Development
    199. Thukhuma Khayeethe Team (TKT) သ ြေ မြေ ီ်းသည်အဖ ွံ့
    200. Thwee Community Development Organization
    201. U.S. Campaign for Burma
    202. Union Aid Abroad- APHEDA
    203. urgewald e.V.
    204. VOICE
    205. Vrede vzw
    206. Waingmaw CSO Network
    207. Waingmaw Women CBO
    208. Watnet Chaung Alinkar
    209. WIDE+ (Women In Development Europe+)
    210. Witness Radio – Uganda
    211. WomanHealth Philippines
    212. Worker Development Organization
    213. Yai Ywal Yar Youth Development Organization
    214. Yatanar Youngyi Social Development Organization
    215. YMCA Mandalay (Young Men’s Christian Association)
    216. Young Ni Oo Women Social Development Organization
    217. YOUNITY
    218. Zinlum Committee (Tanphaye)
    219. The Baroness Cox, The House of Lords, UK Parliament

    ***

    Background

    As of February 2021, the following project finance (combined amount of current and pipeline projects with IFI commitments via loans, grants, guarantees, financial intermediaries, other financing modalities), support to COVID-19 response, and other financial transactions have been noted:

    • World Bank (IDA): 41 projects, roughly US$4 billion
    • International Finance Corporation (IFC): 38 projects, roughly US$850 million
    • Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA): 9 projects, roughly US$1.22 billion
    • Asian Development Bank (ADB): 97 projects, roughly US$2.7 billion
    • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB): 1 project, US$20 million
    • International Monetary Fund (IMF): US$689.24 million for outstanding loans and purchases
    • Consolidated COVID-19 response support from World Bank ($818.53M), ADB ($394M) and IMF ($356.5): roughly US$1.6 billion

    Development finance and related country partnership strategies can only succeed if supported by: (1) the rule of law; (2) functioning democratic institutions; and (3) protected rights of people, rights defenders and free media. In contrast, the military coup d’état on 1 February conferred full legislative, executive, and judicial powers unto the Tatmadaw—and specifically its leader, General Min Aung Hlaing. He and the Tatmadaw have long carried out atrocity crimes and rights abuses, documented by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, and subject to scrutiny at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice. Min Aung Hlaing replaced the central bank governor and now has the power to spend the IMF’s recent $350 million loan, for example. He has already removed all Supreme Court judges appointed by the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government.

    Lenders should comply with their own policies and prior commitments, such as the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework including due diligence, environmental risks, community safety, and labor requirements; or ADB’s safeguard policies on involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples, and the environment. They should also comply with responsible business practices, such as the OECD’s Responsible business conduct for institutional investors and the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which require investors to identify potential adverse impacts and use leverage to influence recipients. At the very least, lenders should fulfil the objectives outlined at the 2020 Finance in Common Summit, which include promoting sustainable, inclusive and equitable development.

    Oversight and risk assessment as contemplated in the above-referenced frameworks (and others) should raise the following critical issues, at a minimum:

    For civil society engagement and further questions, please contact:

    ***

    For a PDF version of this statement, click here