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Afghanistan: UN starts cash plan to prop up Afghan economy
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KABUL, 23 October 2021, (TON): The United Nations on Wednesday launched a funding programme aimed at preventing the Afghan economy from collapsing during the winter by getting cash flowing through the local economy again.
The UN Development Programme has set up a trust fund through which governments can channel finance via the UN to specific programmes on the ground, rather than sending money government-to-government, with Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.
UNDP chief Achim Steiner told a news conference in Geneva “what we are witnessing is not only a nation and a country in the midst of political turmoil; what we are also witnessing is an economic implosion.”
Since the Taliban takeover in August, banks are running out of cash and civil servants are going unpaid.
Afghanistan’s economy is in a parlous state with most aid cut off, food prices rising and unemployment spiking.
The UNDP fears that on the current trajectory, 97 percent of Afghan households could be below the poverty line by early- to mid-2022.
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