The executive board of the World Bank approved a plan to use more than $1 billion from a frozen Afghanistan trust fund to finance urgently needed education, agriculture, health and family programs, the bank announced.
The plan, which will bypass sanctioned Islamic Emirate authorities by disbursing the money through UN agencies and international aid groups, will provide a major boost to efforts to ease the country’s worsening humanitarian and economic crises.
The approach “aims to support the delivery of essential basic services, protect vulnerable Afghans, help preserve human capital and key economic and social services, and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the future,” the bank said in a statement.
Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) was frozen in August when the Islamic Emirate forces overran Kabul as the last US-led international troops departed after 20 years of war.
Foreign governments ended financial aid constituting more than 70% of government expenditures while the United States led in the freezing of some $9 billion in Afghan central bank funds.
The funding cuts accelerated an economic collapse, fueling a cash crunch and deepening a humanitarian crisis that the United Nations says has pushed more than half of Afghanistan’s population of 39 million to the verge of starvation.
The World Bank statement said that as a first step, ARTF donors will decide on four projects worth about $600 million that will support “urgent needs in education, heath and agricultural sectors, as well as community livelihoods.”
There will be a “strong focus on ensuring that girls and women participate and benefit from the support,” the statement continued.
Meanwhile, donors to the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) have agreed to decide about a transfer of funds to humanitarian aid agencies by Dec. 10, a World Bank spokesperson said, Reuters reported.
The World Bank’s board this week backed transferring $280 million from the $1.5 billion trust fund, which was frozen after the Taliban took over the Afghan government in August, to the World Food Programme and UNICEF, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the plan.
The World Bank spokesperson gave no details on the proposal, but said ARTF donors met on Friday and agreed to make a decision on transfers out of the fund in one week.
No further details about the ARTF meeting were immediately available.
The US Treasury Department had no comment.
Afghanistan’s 39 million people face a collapsing economy, a winter of food shortages and growing poverty since the Taliban seized power at the end of August as the last US troops withdrew from 20 years of war.
Afghan experts have said the aid would help, but big questions remain, including how to get funds into Afghanistan without exposing any financial institutions involved to US sanctions.
Donors to the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) have agreed to decide about a transfer of funds to humanitarian aid agencies by Dec. 10, a World Bank spokesperson said on Friday.—Reuters
