Kabul – December 1 (Online): The United Nations said on Wednesday that a program to pay $300 million a year in cash to Afghan families with children, elderly or people with disabilities is the best way to target increasing poverty.
In what the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) described as an “alarming” socio-economic outlook for Afghanistan for the next 13 months, it also pushed a $100 million “cash for work” project to boost employment and $90 million in small business payments.
“This will be probably the best shot at halting this massive collapse into near universal poverty,” UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Kanni Wignaraja, told Reuters.
As Afghanistan struggles with a sharp drop in international development aid after the Taliban seized power in mid-August, an economy and banking system on the brink of collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic and severe drought, UNDP has projected that poverty may become nearly universal by mid 2022 – affecting more than 90 percent of the country’s 39 million people.
The U.N. World Food Programme has said 22.8 million people are facing acute food insecurity. UNDP set up a special trust fund in October, with a 50 million euros ($58 million) pledge from Germany, to provide urgently needed cash directly to Afghans. So far, the fund has received pledges for $170 million.
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