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World Bank donates $84 million to Afghanistan
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.
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UNESCO: 2.4 million Afghan girls denied education since 2021
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Tuesday around 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) returned to power in 2021.
In a statement on Tuesday, UNESCO said Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are officially barred from secondary and higher education.
The organization warned that the restrictions could increase poverty, reduce employment opportunities and cause long-term damage to Afghanistan’s future.
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
Girls’ secondary schools were closed in March 2022, followed by a ban on women attending universities in December of the same year. The IEA initially described the restrictions as temporary, but they remain in place.
UNESCO also warned that the restrictions could worsen Afghanistan’s shortage of female teachers. It estimates the country could face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.
The organization said more than 90% of 10-year-old children in Afghanistan cannot read a simple text, while the national literacy rate is around 37%.
Nearly half of the country’s schools also lack adequate access to water, sanitation or heating, UNESCO said.
According to the report, around three million people returned to Afghanistan in 2025, putting further pressure on the education system. Since 2021, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters have also forced around 1,000 schools to close.
Russia’s Power Machines Company is interested in investing in the rehabilitation and modernization of Afghanistan’s power plants, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) said on Tuesday.
DABS Chief Executive Officer Abdul Haq Hamkar discussed the potential investment with technical officials from Power Machines, with talks focusing on rehabilitating existing power plants, modernizing equipment and expanding power-generation capacity.
According to DABS, Hamkar said the company would cooperate in facilitating preliminary technical assessments of Afghanistan’s power plants and in exploring investment opportunities in the sector.
Denis Rudakov, head of Power Machines’ commercial department, said the Russian company plans to conduct preliminary technical assessments of existing power plants in Afghanistan.
Based on the findings, Power Machines will prepare proposals for rehabilitating facilities, modernizing equipment and increasing electricity-generation capacity, DABS said.
Afghanistan currently has several operational power plants, while efforts are underway to increase their generation capacity and upgrade their equipment, according to DABS.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), on Tuesday denied that IEA authorities detained Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman the US claims disappeared in Kabul four years ago.
“We have no information about Mahmood Shah Habibi. He is not with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. If he were, this issue would have been resolved long ago,” Mujahid said.
His remarks came a day after the FBI marked the fourth anniversary of Habibi’s disappearance and renewed its appeal for information about his whereabouts.
According to the FBI, Habibi disappeared near his home in Kabul on August 10, 2022. At the time, he was working as a consultant for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company. He had previously served as Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation.
The FBI has alleged that Habibi was detained by the IEA’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
The FBI has continued its investigation and in 2025 released a missing-persons poster for Habibi. The U.S. State Department has also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location, recovery and return.
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