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KABUL: Endorsing the Financing Strategy Agreement for the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), Afghanistan will receive $ 2.8 billion in grant assistance during the three years, a statement from the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.
From this assistance, the statement said that $1.2 billion would be provided to support Afghanistan’s operating budget, $ 723 million for financing ongoing development projects and $ 918 million to finance new development projects in the next three years.
The projects financed under the ARTF assistance are in the governance, agriculture, rural development, social development and infrastructure sectors, it said, adding all this assistance would support the priorities of Afghanistan in these sectors and would be spent through the National Budget.
Speaking at the endorsement ceremony for the new ARTF financing strategy, Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi said: “The Afghan people appreciate the generous support from the international community provided to Afghanistan through the ARTF. Afghanistan will make sure to utilize the resources of the fund more effectively. The government will come up with new priorities this year that will be financed from the ARTF.”
The Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) is a multi-donor trust fund established in 2002 and is administered by the World Bank (WB).
As of today, nearly $ 8 billion are channeled through the Trust Fund for service delivery and reconstruction across Afghanistan. Currently, 34 international donors provide contributions to the ARTF. The ARTF is an important vehicle for donors to channel funding into the country and to meet international commitments on donor coherence and the use of country systems.
Since the establishment of the national unity government in Afghanistan, this is the biggest multilateral support commitment to the development of Afghanistan. Kabul would work closely with the World Bank and the 34 donors to the Trust Fund to utilize the resources under the ARTF for funding the national priorities of Afghanistan as outlined in the Self Reliance Paper presented at the London Conference in 2014. (PAN)
