Manila, 3 February 2022 (TDI): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved 405 million dollars destined to help Afghan citizens, in their times of need, on 25 January. ADB issued the money through grants to support food security. The grants wi also help to sustain the delivery of essential health and education services.
The ADB will provide direct financing to four United Nations (UN) agencies; under its Sustaining Essential Services Delivery Project (Support for Afghan People). The four agencies of the UN that will receive the funds have presence and logistics in Afghanistan.
OBJECTIVE OF THE FUNDING AND BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE SITUATION
Furthermore, the agencies are the ones in charge of using those funds for immediate humanitarian assistance. Moreover, humanitarian assistance has the objective of alleviating the unprecedented crisis and helping sustain the country’s human development.
Right now, according to UN estimations, some 22.8 million people are at risk of acute food insecurity. The Bank then mentioned that the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will receive $135 million and $65 million respectively.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE FUNDING
According to the ADB, these funds will enable the provision of emergency food to over 800,000 people and farm inputs, fertilizers; or small farm equipment to around 390,000 households. Regarding the food-for-work and cash-for-work programs, both will cover around 168,000 people.
On the other side, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will receive $200 million. Furthermore, those funds are to maintain basic health care and essential hospital services; covering a target population of about 5.3 million people.
Regarding the covid-19 pandemics, the funds for UNICEF will also procure and deploy 2.3 million single-dose coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines for priority groups. UNICEF will also be able to strengthen 10,000 community-based education classes; which follow the same curriculum as public schools.
According to the note, those classes have the funding of development partners and are supervised by village leaders. Furthermore, those classes reach around 264,000 children, 60% of which are girls.
Here, UNICEF will provide professional development programs to the teachers of those community-based education classes. By doing this, UNICEF will seek to promote the development of secondary education female teachers and the placement of up to 20,000 adolescent girls from vulnerable families in private schools.
UNICEF will also provide the ADB grant stationary, textbooks, and other learning materials to 785,000 public school 1st graders through the community councils. Moreover, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will receive 5 million from the ADB grant.
According to the note, with the 5 million; UNDP will monitor project implementation, undertake macroeconomic and social assessments in the country, and assess the impact of ADB’s assistance.
FINAL STATEMENTS AND ADB’S OTHER ACTIVITIES
FAO, UNICEF, and WFP will also engage third-party monitoring firms to verify the delivery of support to targeted beneficiaries and monitor project activities. The Asian Development Bank was established in 1966, and has 68 members; 49 of them are from the region.
The Asian Development Fund financed the grants, and they also provide grants to ADB’s poorest and most vulnerable developing member countries.
The Asian Development Bank has the commitment to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. ADB does this by sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
International Relations student at the Universidad de Navarra in Spain. Main interests are the work of International Organizations like the UN in the scope of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable human beings and the environment
