The World Bank’s management has approved a plan to use some $1 billion in a frozen Afghanistan trust fund for education, agriculture, health and family programs, according to a bank paper and two sources, in what would be a major boost to efforts to ease the country’s worsening humanitarian and economic crises.
The plan, outlined in the paper seen by Reuters on Friday, is to bypass sanctioned Taliban authorities by disbursing the money in the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) through UN agencies.
It is set to be discussed by the World Bank board on March 1, the sources familiar with the plan told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Donors to the fund would then need to give approval for the release of any money.
The move would follow a successful disbursement of $280 million from the same trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UN children’s agency UNICEF to support nutrition and health in Afghanistan over the past few months.
