World Bank & Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF) Support for the People of Afghanistan
Since August 2021, the World Bank has provided more than $1.7 billion in support to the Afghan people – focusing on service delivery for women and girls. All the funds remain outside the systems and control of the Interim Taliban Administration (ITA).
In December 2021, the World Bank transferred $280 million in funds from the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF) to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP). This was for humanitarian gap financing to meet emergency health and nutrition needs over the critical winter months.
Since early 2022, the World Bank and ARTF donors have supported the Afghan people with critical health, education, food security, livelihoods, and water services provided at scale – nationwide.
In February 2024, the World Bank’s Board of Directors endorsed the provision of International Development Association (IDA) funds to complement ARTF financing and to continue to support the people of Afghanistan with basic services. IDA grants will be provided directly to United Nations agencies and other public international organizations, outside of the ITA’s control. The World Bank continues to work with all multilateral and bilateral partners to coordinate aid in basic services for the Afghan people.
The Board of Directors also endorsed the resumption of the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) activities in Afghanistan. CASA-1000 is a regional project to bring clean energy from Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic to Pakistan via Afghanistan. Project activities in Afghanistan will resume in a ring-fenced manner to ensure all construction payments and future revenue are managed outside of Afghanistan and do not involve ITA systems.
Active Project Portfolio
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The World Bank puts women and girls at the center of projects and ensures that project activities are implemented by and for women. The independent third-party monitoring agents verify compliance in all project activities.
The Afghanistan Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project (approved April 2022) aims to provide livelihood and income opportunities for one million households in 6,450 rural communities across Afghanistan and in the cities of Bamyan, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Kunduz, and Mazar-e-Sharif. In addition, an estimated 9.3 million Afghans in the same areas will benefit from basic utilities and services such as clean water, sanitation, and rehabilitated roads. Women and vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities and internally displaced people, will receive special assistance. The project is implemented by UNOPS.
The Afghanistan Health Emergency Response Project (approved May 2022) supports women’s and children’s continued access to basic health services by delivering basic health and nutrition services in partnership with national and international service providers in more than 2,300 health facilities nationwide. The project aims to fully immunize 2 million children and enable 1.2 million women to give birth at health facilities. The project also aims to improve access to nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women and children under 2 years old. The project is implemented by UNICEF in collaboration with WHO and WFP.
The Afghanistan Emergency Food Security Project (approved June 2022) aims to increase production of food crops for smallholder Afghan farmers to help prevent the further deterioration of food security. The project supports the nutritional needs of children, people with disabilities or chronic illness, and households headed by women. The project is implemented by FAO.
The NGO/CSO Capacity Support Project (approved June 2022) recognizes the important cross-cutting role that the non-governmental and civil society organizations (NGOs and CSOs) are undertaking to deliver basic services across Afghanistan and works to enhance the capacities of select registered organizations to improve their performance and effectiveness. The project is implemented by UNDP.
The Education Emergency Response in Afghanistan (EERA) Project (approved September 2022) aims to increase girls’ and boys’ access to education and improve learning conditions throughout Afghanistan. It focuses on reaching out-of-school children, including adolescent girls, through a combination of community-based education and alternative learning modalities to reach boys and girls. The project also supports students in primary public schools by providing teaching and learning materials and by constructing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities and boundary walls in schools, which are key to enabling girls’ participation in school. The project is implemented by UNICEF.
The Afghanistan Water Emergency Relief Project (WERP) (approved June 2023) aims to improve access to safe drinking water and irrigation water services for 1.2 million people in rural Afghanistan, including women and girls. This project prioritizes 16 drought-affected provinces covering approximately 120 districts that face severe constraints to access safe water and sanitation facilities. The project is implemented by Aga Khan Foundation USA and UNOPS.
Empowering Microfinance and Enterprises for Resilience and Growth (EMERGe) Project (approved March 2024) aims to help revive microfinance providers in Afghanistan so they can provide new financing to micro and small enterprises. The project will also provide business development services that focus on building a pipeline of bankable micro and small enterprises and enterprises that proactively create jobs for women. These services will help women-led small businesses transition from informal savings groups to formal credit channels. The project is implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation-USA and the Afghan Credit Guarantee Foundation.
The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Support for the Private Sector
The IFC is the World Bank Group’s arm that focuses directly on promoting private sector growth. IFC supports the Afghan people through investments and advisory services.
Equity investment in Afghanistan International Bank (approved in December 2015 – part of Long-Term Financing portfolio) of 7.5% aims to diversify the bank’s shareholding, strengthen its operational risk management, and build its capacity for commercial lending in diversified sectors. By doing so, the investment focuses on improving financial inclusion in the country.
Equity investment in First Microfinance Bank Limited (approved October 2002 – part of Long-Term Financing portfolio) supports the bank in developing micro-finance as a viable and attractive commercial activity that provides financial services to MSMEs and underserved segments of the population, including women.
Ghazanfar Bank Women Markets Advisory (approved in June 2020 and completed in June 2023) supported Ghazanfar Bank in increasing access to finance for women entrepreneurs by developing Customer Value and Non-Financial Services propositions and lending product concepts, including those related to Islamic financing, while providing extensive sales trainings and sharing knowledge and global best practices on financing to women MSMEs.
Afghanistan Red Pomegranate (approved in June 2021) aims to fortify the financial management systems of Afghanistan Red Pomegranate, a food manufacturer, to enhance its bankability and support its expansion plans.
Afghanistan Private Sector Development Program (approved in 2023) is an umbrella program to support SME and entrepreneurship development, advocacy, public-private dialogue, financial sector development, and support to women-owned businesses. The program includes the following:
- Afghanistan Private Sector Forum (launched in May 2024) is an advocacy platform established in partnership with the Harakat Investment Climate Program to strengthen coordination within the private sector and facilitate dialogue among the private sector, international development agencies and local authorities. The forum was established after consultations with the private sector, which indicated the need for a platform that would engage, mobilize, and support businesses.
- Darya Incubation and Acceleration Program (launched in February 2024) aims to support the growth of small businesses and startups by providing essential training support, coaching and mentorship as well as a suite of business development services. The program has received over 900 applications, has launched two incubation cohorts for men and women, and currently includes 66 businesses, with 33 of them being women-owned.
- The program is also developing a whitepaper on the conversion of conventional banks to Islamic banks as per international standards and best practices tailored to the local context.
WBG Analytical Work
The World Bank Group manages the Afghanistan Futures program of research, monitoring, and analytical reports on the state of the Afghan economy and society. It seeks to inform the international policy dialogue as the international community assesses how it can support the people of Afghanistan. The program includes the Monthly Economic Monitor, the twice-yearly Afghanistan Development Update, the Welfare Monitoring Survey, the Gender Monitoring Survey, and the Private Sector Rapid Survey, as well as other analytical works on resilience, human capital, and the private sector. In addition, IFC is also engaged studies on the agricultural, pharmaceutical, energy transmission and distribution, and temperature-controlled logistics (TCL) sectors to better understand market dynamics, investment prospects, feasibility for enhanced production, as well as existing bottlenecks and opportunities.