World Bank plans to redirect frozen funds to Afghanistan for humanitarian aid

World Bank plans to redirect frozen funds to Afghanistan for humanitarian aid

Washington (UNA-OIC) – Board members of the World Bank are scheduled to meet informally Tuesday to finalize a proposal to deliver up to $500 million from a frozen Afghanistan aid fund to humanitarian agencies.

The proposal has been hammered out in recent weeks with officials from the United States and United Nations ​to redirect the funds from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), which has a total of $1.5 billion.

The aid will help, but big gaps remain, including how to get the funds into Afghanistan without exposing the financial institutions involved to US sanctions, and the lack of focus on state workers, according to Afghan experts.

They added that the money will go mainly to addressing urgent health care needs in Afghanistan, where less than 7 percent of the population has been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

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