On Dec. 10, World Bank donors agreed to unfreeze $180 million from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund for the United Nations’s World Food Program to counteract an emerging humanitarian crisis. The WFP says these funds will allow it to assist about 2.7 million Afghans, less than a third of the 8.7 million facing famine. Unfortunately, its reach may be further constrained and subject to bias due to WFP’s partners.
Sohrab, a former Afghan government official whose name has been changed to protect his identity, said a local leader distributed last month’s aid packages of flour to about 200 of the 2,000 impoverished Afghans he estimates live in his area of northern Kabul. Sohrab alleges recipients were determined based on the official’s relationships rather than families’ level of need.
