The World Bank announced Tuesday it has approved $84 million in aid to Afghanistan in order to fight the economic crisis and implement livelihood projects in the country.

According to a statement, this “complements $70 million in additional financing from the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF).”

The project was started in 2022 with a grant of $265 million from the ARTF to provide livelihoods support and services in rural and urban areas, support social grants for women and the most vulnerable, and strengthen community institutions for inclusive service delivery.

With this additional financing, the project will scale up activities in more rural and urban areas, provide more livelihood opportunities for women, expand activities focused on building climate resilience, and provide employment and services to returning Afghan migrants, the World Bank stated.

Melinda Good, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan, said: “In the past 18 months, the project has laid the foundation for an effective service delivery platform and operational model at scale for delivering jobs, providing essential services and assets, and, importantly, reaching women.

“With the additional financing, the project will continue its essential works in all six regions of the country, 26 of the 34 provinces, 67 rural districts, 6,200 rural communities, and eight major cities,” she said.

To date, the project has provided short-term employment to over 776,000 households, benefiting around 5.4 million Afghans, and about 92,200 vulnerable households received cash transfers or in-kind social grants, with a significant portion being female-headed households or those with disabled members.

Approximately 7.4 million Afghans gained access to services like roads, sanitation, and water supply, and more than 2.1 million community members received training in health and nutrition, the effects of climate change and disaster risk management.

In addition, the project has helped create a market for local civil works and preserve local contractors’ capacities built over the last two decades.

An estimated 2,200 highly skilled market-driven jobs have also been created.

The project is implemented by UNOPS, which facilitates international and local NGO partners and local private sector contractors to implement activities in rural and urban areas.

A plane carrying 92 tonnes of vital medicines has arrived in Afghanistan to treat about 675,000 people, including children, with life-threatening but treatable illnesses after an increase in respiratory infections and measles this year, Save the Children said on Tuesday.

The consignment – the largest delivered by Save the Children in a year – will provide lifesaving treatment for nearly 400,000 children afflicted by endemic childhood illnesses such as respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, acute watery diarrhoea, and skin diseases, the organization said in a statement.

Since the beginning of 2024, more than 1,000 children under the age of 5 have died after contracting pneumonia, comprising 88% of all deaths from respiratory infection.

The current number of cases is higher than the average number reported during the past three years, according to the World Health Organisation.

The number of measles cases among children under five has risen by 44% compared with the same period last year, the statement said.

“Too many children in Afghanistan die from easily preventable diseases and illnesses. The arrival of these medicines means that more than 400,000 children will receive potentially lifesaving treatment in some of the most remote areas of the country,” said Arshad Malik, Country Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan.

He added that every day around the world, roughly 16,000 children under the age of 5 will die from common illnesses that can be prevented and treated.

The medicines, which are worth about US $590,000, were donated by the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA), the European Union Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and Save the Children’s internal Humanitarian Fund, among other organisations.

Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, the political deputy prime minister, said on Tuesday that the Islamic Emirate will not give in to international pressure and will not take orders from any country.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of Kabul Polytechnic students, Kabir said that transit within the region is not possible without Afghanistan and that the government is working on the issue.

Kabir also said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is working on the implementation of projects and on developing the mining sector.

He also emphasized the need to provide conditions for the return of immigrants to the country.

The Islamic Emirate’s minister of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, also spoke at the event and said the IEA is not against the development of modern sciences in the country, but that Western countries are spreading negative propaganda against the Islamic Emirate.

Nada Mohammad Nadim, Acting Minister of Higher Education, also emphasized that the Islamic Emirate was victorious on the battlefield and will also win in the field of economy, health and education.

On the other hand, some officials of the Ministry of Higher Education said that the ministry is trying to make progress in the direction of scientific and educational expansion and to be equal to global standards.

Over 530 students graduated from seventeen departments of this university, and their graduation certificates were presented by the authorities of the Islamic Emirate.