Following Afghanistan’s abrupt change in government in 2021, the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF) found alternative ways to get resources flowing again to support the delivery of essential food, livelihood, health, water, and education services to the Afghan people. The ARTF’s new funding modality channels funding through UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations like the Aga Khan Foundation.
Among other projects, the ARTF provides financing for the Afghanistan Emergency Food Security Project, which aims to achieve sustained, reliable access to affordable food crop production. The project is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the third-party implementing agency outside of the control of the Interim Taliban Administration.
More than 150,000 households headed by women have received support to grow vegetables and sell surpluses in local markets, thus enabling women to feed their families and earn income. The project addresses the nutritional needs of children and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses through the provision of seeds and basic tools for kitchen gardens and technical training on improved nutrition.
Rehabilitation of damaged irrigation canals and small-scale watershed restoration activities have contributed to resilience while creating work opportunities for irrigation service providers and vulnerable communities. Technical assistance to more than 100 private sector seed enterprises has enabled the distribution of an improved variety of wheat seeds and fertilizers to 750,000 households.
The activities in this story were implemented with the generous support of the following development partners:
Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, European Commission/European Union, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, India, Ireland, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, UN Development Programme, United Kingdom, United States.
For more information on how trust funds help coordinate, innovate and catalyze development action, please see the World Bank Group’s FY24 Trust Fund Annual Report.
