World Bank says donors approve release of $280 million for Afghanistan

By News Desk

Washington: Donors agreed to transfer $280 million from a frozen, trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to support nutrition and health in Afghanistan, the World Bank said as it seeks to help a country facing famine and economic freefall.

The World Bank-administered Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund will this year give $180 million to WFP to scale up food security and nutrition operations and $100 million to UNICEF to provide essential health services, the bank said in a statement.

The money would aim to support food security and health programs in Afghanistan as it sinks into a severe economic and humanitarian crisis that accelerated in August when the Taliban overran the country as the Western-backed government collapsed and the last U.S. troops withdrew.

Around 22 million Afghans, or more than half the country, will face an "acute" food shortage in the winter months, forcing millions to choose between migration and starvation.

That is due to the combined effects of drought caused by global warming, and an economic crisis aggravated by the international community´s decision to freeze funding to the aid-dependent nation after the Taliban takeover in August -- a decision the UN described in a recent report as an "unprecedented fiscal shock".

Washington froze about $10 billion of the country´s reserves and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan´s access to funding.

Many people in the capital Kabul have resorted to selling household goods in order to feed themselves and buy coal to heat their homes in the winter.

Using reconstruction trust fund money and channeling it through the WFP and UNICEF, both part of the U.N. family, appears to be a way to get funding into the country for basic needs in a manner that does not necessarily implicate U.S. 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.

In its statement, the bank said it would "continue to work with ARTF donors to unlock additional ARTF funds to support the Afghan people."

Laurel Miller, a former acting U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, criticized the decision to tap the ARTF for strictly humanitarian aid, saying money should come from other sources and the $1.5 billion fund should be used for a major initiative to halt the collapse of state institutions whose workers have not been paid for months.

"We're talking about a collapse of public services that serve the Afghan people," said Miller, who oversees the Asia program 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."