World Bank to unfreeze $1B in Afghan funds

The World Bank on Friday approved a plan to use some $1 billion in frozen Afghanistan funds for education, agriculture, health, and family programs in an effort to ease the country's worsening humanitarian and economic crises.

The plan would bypass sanctioned Taliban authorities by disbursing the money in the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) through United Nations agencies.

According to the World Bank, the proposal is to "make available just over US$1 billion in ARTF resources in the calendar year 2022."

It will be further discussed on March 1, as donors for the fund now need to give approval for the release of the money.