The World Bank has put four projects in Afghanistan worth $600 million on hold amid concerns over a decision by the country's ruling Islamist leaders to ban girls from returning to public high schools, the bank said.
An Afghan schoolgirl reads from her notebook as another unpacks her school bag inside a house in KabulBy Andrea Shalal and Jonathan Landay
The projects, to be funded under the revamped Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, were being readied for implementation by United Nations agencies to support projects in agriculture, education, health, and livelihoods. As a result, the bank said, the four projects will be presented to ARTF donors for approval only "when the World Bank and international partners have a better understanding of the situation and confidence that the goals of the projects can be met." It was not immediately clear when that could occur.
The executive board of the World Bank on March 1 approved a plan to use more than $1 billion from the ARTF fund to finance urgently needed education, agriculture, health and family programs that would bypass sanctioned Taliban authorities and disburse the money through U.N. agencies and aid groups.
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