The World Bank said that international donors have agreed to send $280 million from a frozen trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to promote nutrition and health in Afghanistan, as the country faces hunger and economic collapse.
The Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which is administered by the World Bank, will pay $180 million to WFP to expand food security and nutrition operations and $100 million to UNICEF to deliver basic health services this year, according to a statement released by the bank on Friday.
The funds would be used to help food security and health programmes in Afghanistan, which is facing a terrible economic and humanitarian crisis that worsened in August when the Taliban overran the nation after the Western-backed government collapsed and the last US troops left.
The United States and other donors cut off financial help to Afghanistan, which had become reliant on it throughout the country’s 20-year conflict, and more than $9 billion in hard currency assets were frozen.
As winter descends on the impoverished, landlocked country, the UN warns that almost 23 million people – or approximately 55 percent of the population – are facing extreme hunger, with nearly nine million at risk of famine.
Using money from the reconstruction trust fund and channelling it through the UN’s World Food Programme and UNICEF, both of which are members of the UN family, looks to be a means to get financing into the country for essential needs without jeopardising US sanctions against the Taliban.
“This decision is the first step to repurpose funds in the ARTF portfolio to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan at this critical time,” the bank said, saying the agencies had presence on the ground to deliver services directly to Afghans in line “with their own policies and procedures”.
“These ARTF funds will enable UNICEF to provide 12.5 million people with basic and essential health services and vaccinate 1 million people, while WFP will be able to provide 2.7 million people with food assistance and nearly 840,000 mothers and children with nutrition assistance,” it added.
News agency had reported earlier on Friday that the donors were poised to approve the $280 million transfer.
According to news agency, the World Bank board of directors approved sending the ARTF monies to the two agencies on December 1.
“We will continue to engage with ARTF donors to unlock additional ARTF funding to serve the Afghan people,” the bank said in a statement.
Laurel Miller, a former acting US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, criticised the decision to use the ARTF solely for humanitarian aid, saying that the money should come from other sources and that the $1.5 billion fund should be used for a broad initiative to prevent state institutions from collapsing because their employees have not been paid in months.
“We’re talking about a collapse of public services that serve the Afghan people,” said Miller, who oversees the Asia programme of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank.
“That’s not about helping the Taliban. That’s about helping Afghans who need a functioning state. They need more than food aid.”
Many individuals in Kabul’s capital have turned to selling their belongings to feed themselves and buy coal to heat their homes throughout the winter.
