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The United States, through the Department of the Treasury and the Department of State, and in coordination with international partners including the government of Switzerland and Afghan economic experts, today announced the establishment of a fund to benefit the people of Afghanistan, or the Afghan Fund.

The United States remains committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan amidst ongoing economic and humanitarian crises. Pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14064, President Biden set a policy of enabling $3.5 billion of Afghan central bank reserves to be used for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and other malign actors. The Afghan Fund will protect, preserve, and make targeted disbursements of that $3.5 billion to help provide greater stability to the Afghan economy.

The Taliban are not a part of the Afghan Fund, and robust safeguards have been put in place to prevent the funds from being used for illicit activity. The Afghan Fund will maintain its account with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) based in Switzerland. The BIS is an international financial organization that provides a range of financial services, including banking services to central banks, monetary authorities and international financial institutions (seewww.bis.org). An external auditor will monitor and audit the Afghan Fund as required by Swiss law.

The people of Afghanistan face humanitarian and economic crises born of decades of conflict, severe drought, COVID-19, and endemic corruption, said Wendy Sherman, United States Deputy Secretary of State. Today, the United States and its partners take an important, concrete step forward in ensuring that additional resources can be brought to bear to reduce suffering and improve economic stability for the people of Afghanistan while continuing to hold the Taliban accountable.

The Afghan Fund will help mitigate the economic challenges facing Afghanistan while protecting and preserving $3.5 billion in reserves from Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB),Afghanistans central bank, for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan, said Wally Adeyemo, United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. The Talibans repression and economicmismanagement have exacerbated longstanding economic challenges for Afghanistan, includingthrough actions that have diminished the capacity of key Afghan economic institutions and madethe return of these funds to Afghanistan untenable. Through this Fund, the United States willwork closely with our international partners to facilitate use of these assets to improve the livesof ordinary people in Afghanistan.

In response to the critical challenges facing the people of Afghanistan, the United States isalready the largest donor of humanitarian assistance, Sherman also noted. We have workedwith the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to make available more than $1 billion inassistance for basic services and other urgent needs, in addition to providing over $814 million inU.S. humanitarian aid directly to implementing partners to support the Afghan people whilepreventing funds from benefiting the Taliban. Now, the Afghan Fund will be part of our ongoingdiplomatic and humanitarian efforts on behalf of the people of Afghanistan.

According to the World Bank, income and economic output in Afghanistan have fallen 20-30percent, imports have declined by approximately 40 percent, and about 70 percent of Afghanhouseholds report they are unable to fully meet basic food or non-food needs. Disbursementsfrom the Afghan Fund could include keeping Afghanistan current on its debt payments tointernational financial institutions, which would preserve their eligibility for developmentassistance, and paying for critical imports, such as electricity.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

Central Bank of Afghanistan (DAB)When the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistans central bank, DAB, lost access to its accountsat financial institutions around the worldnot just in the United Statesbecause of theuncertainty regarding who could authorize transactions on DABs accounts. Since then, theeconomic situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate due to the Talibans pooreconomic management and failure to restore critical capabilities to DAB, such as adequate anti-money laundering and countering terrorist finance (AML/CFT) controls.

To rebuild confidence among the international financial community, DAB must demonstrate thatit has the expertise, capacity, and independence to responsibly perform the duties of a centralbank. To move toward that goal, DAB must demonstrate that it is free from political interference,has appropriate AML/CFT controls in place, and has undertaken a third-party needs assessmentand onboarded a third-party monitor.

The Afghan FundThe Afghan Fund is incorporated as a Swiss foundation established to protect, preserve, andona targeted basisdisburse $3.5 billion for the benefit of the Afghan people. The Afghan Fundcan also serve as a vehicle to protect and disburse other Afghan central bank foreign reservescurrently held in additional countries. These disbursements are intended to help address the acuteeffects of Afghanistans economic and humanitarian crises by supporting Afghanistansmacroeconomic and financial stability.

Location of AssetsThe Afghan Fund will maintain its account with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS is an established international financial organization that provides a range of financial services, including banking services to central banks, monetary authorities and international financial institutions. See http://www.bis.org.

The BIS will act as intermediary bank and will not be involved in the governance of the Afghan Fund or perform any related functions such as approving disbursements.

Use of the FundsIn the short-term, the Board of Trustees of the Afghan Fund will have the ability to authorize targeted disbursements to promote monetary and macroeconomic stability and benefit the Afghan people. This could include paying for critical imports like electricity, paying Afghanistans arrears at international financial institutions to preserve their eligibility for financial support, paying for essential central banking services like SWIFT payments, and others.

In the long-term, the goal is for funds not used for these limited purposes to be preserved to return to DAB. The United States has made clear that we will not support the return of these funds until DAB: (1) Demonstrates its independence from political influence and interference; (2) Demonstrates it has instituted adequate anti-money laundering and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (AML/CFT) controls; and (3) Completes a third-party needs assessment and onboards a reputable third-party monitor.

Afghan Fund GovernanceThe Afghan Fund is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and a Board of Trustees oversees the fund. The Board currently consists of two highly qualified Afghan economic experts with relevant macroeconomic and monetary policy experience, a U.S. government representative, and a Swiss government representative. The Afghan Fund has the support of international partners committed to supporting sustainable monetary and macroeconomic stability in Afghanistan. An external auditor will monitor and audit the Afghan Fund as required by Swiss law.

Legal Basis for the Transfer of the Afghan Central Banks AssetsOn February 11, 2022, the President signed E.O. 14064 to help enable certain assets belonging to DAB held in the United States to be used to benefit the Afghan people. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a license authorizing the transfer of up to $3.5 billion of DAB funds for the benefit of the Afghan people.

Consistent with past practice and following the Taliban takeover, the Department of State certified two individuals pursuant to Section 25B of the Federal Reserve Act as having joint authority to receive, control, or dispose of property from the DABs account. Those individuals founded the Afghan Fund as a legal entity in Switzerland.

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The United States and Partners Announce Establishment of Fund for the People of Afghanistan - United States Department of State - Department of State

A year into the Taliban takeover, children in Afghanistan are in facing death, suffering, and an uncertain future.

With forced labor, malnutrition, and education restrictions dampening the population, Asuntha Charles, a humanitarian aid worker, told Insider that Afghan children are in urgent need of support.Since the Taliban takeover, the US and its international partners froze roughly $10 billion of the country's assets leaving the people who remain inside the country in dire need of outside aid.

"It's not the right moment for the international communities to stay away from Afghanistan, but to provide more and more support so that the future generation is not affected, but able to see life and hope," said Charles, who is from southern India.

Charles has been working with World Vision for about two years and has lived in Afghanistan for roughly 20 years. The Christian-based organization focuses on aiding children facing poverty and justice.

Since the Taliban regained control in August of last year, economic collapse, drought, and the aftermath of a substantial earthquake have devasted the region and the people who live there.

"One thing gives me real worry is about the future of both girls and boys in this country. Because the future generation is really losing lot of opportunities because of so many factors," Charles told Insider.

A study by an NGO called Save the Children found that an estimated one million childrenhad been forced into child labor by February.

"It's really going to have not only physical but psychological impact on the children who are in this country now," Charles added.

It's not uncommon for children in the Taliban-controlled region to work to survive.

After school, some children, boys mostly, are forced to sell items to make money for food or search for litter to burn for warmth.

Girls have been barred from receiving an education beyond primary school, a dramatic regression in women's rights that had been made in the region over the last 20 years.

And outside of education, the lives of Afghanistan's youth are at stake.

Hundreds of children have died while playing outside as a result of explosive weapons that remained from the war.

And, by February, roughly 5 million children were close to starvation, according toThe Guardian. And, as of August, about 90% of households in the country don't have enough food to survive, CBS News reported.

Some parents have faced the impossible decision of selling their children into marriage or at the bazaar in order to feed the rest of the family.

"That's why we really want to continue to advocate that this is not the right moment to forget the people of Afghanistan and especially the children, and the global has to stand by them, and that's very, very crucial," Charles told Insider.

She acknowledged the numerous humanitarian issues going on across the globe, but said she doesn't want the world to forget about Afghanistan.

"There are so many crises globally, so people tend to also associate with different conflicts," Charles continued, "So, that type of frustration exists among people, that they are forgotten."

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The future of Afghanistan's youth is in peril - Business Insider

The Transforming Education Summit (TES) is an excellent starting point to reimagine how our educational systems can meet local needs within a shared global context. In our recent State of Education in Afghanistan conference, we discussed the challenges of national consultation in conflict, fragile, and emergency contexts and suggested how educational actors in Afghanistan and international policymakers could engage, mobilize, and facilitate a national dialogue on transforming education, along with accompanying strategies and delivery mechanisms.

We held our conference on August 15, 2022, exactly one year after the fall of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Taliban. We provided an overview of the educational history of Afghanistan with a focus on the relationship between education and conflict, followed by two panels. The first panel, which included former Afghan government officials, NGO representatives working in education, and technology experts, discussed the challenges and opportunities of providing education services from a local perspective. The second panel, which included representatives from the United Nations, Global Partnership for Education, Education International, and the Brookings Institution, discussed the challenges of donor coordination for education planning and implementation within a conflict-ridden context that lacks clear engagement mechanisms.

We can use this opportunity to mobilize greater political ambition, commitment, and action to support local dialogue and initiatives that would transform the educational landscape toward inclusive, locally-led solutions.

The discussion between panelists and among the audience covered many important topics, ranging from education funding to school access and safety. However, three topics stood out for their urgency and direct relevance to the themes of the upcoming TES discussions:

The TES concept note proposes a country-led national consultation process as the primary mechanism for engagement and mobilization, offering an inclusive and safe space for a dialogue among all stakeholders to discuss education system transformation. However, in fragile and conflict contexts like Afghanistanwhere the legitimacy of the government is under questioneducation aims, forms, and delivery mechanisms can fuel the conflict. In such contexts, a country-led process for national consultation needs to be approached differently.

In the case of Afghanistan, the Taliban government has not taken any steps to provide a forum for stakeholders to mobilize and engage in a discussion on educational aims and delivery mechanisms, despite the fact that the Talibans policies toward education are at the forefront of both local and international demands from the government. The Taliban leadership is not even consulting their ministry staff on larger policy issues. There are serious limitations in dialogue among the global response to educational interventions, as well. The discussions at our conference highlighted that most international educational assistance, estimated at nearly $500 million is channeled through one entity UNICEF. However, it is unclear, even within other United Nations programs, under what conditions UNICEF provides educational support to the Taliban government. UNICEF members meet regularly with a few ministry of education officials behind closed doors, but neither the local nor the international stakeholders know what is being discussed or decided during those meetings.

Although a government-led national consultation process may be ideal for more stable societies, in places like Afghanistan, a more inclusive and transparent approach is necessary to facilitate a national dialogue about transforming education. There is no easy or single answer on how to facilitate such a dialogue. However, we propose three considerations to help achieve that goal. First, the United Nations should form a multi-stakeholder independent coordinating body composed of current government members and national and international education actors with the mandate to facilitate an inclusive and transparent dialogue. Second, this coordinating body should support and draw upon national and international perspectives to capture the many voices and translate those into policy, planning, and budgetary recommendations needed to recover learning losses, get SDG 4 back on track, and reimagine education into the future. And third, as the TES concept note suggests, the conversation on national transformation should not be timebound. It must continue after the TES, especially in conflict and fragile states.

When the heavy lifting of negotiating education policy is too daunting, national and international actors tend to fall back on familiar solutions without considering the negative consequences or spillover effects. In the case of Afghanistan, the two go-to interventions used to bypass the challenging task of negotiating an educational model with the Taliban government seem to focus on scaling CBE programs and online course offerings. However, scaling these two efforts without understanding the spillover effects and without a clear vision of the end goal might cause more harm than good. CBE has a long history in Afghanistan and shown some great success. However, the programs have been successful for a small portion of studentsonly about 5 percent) when they operated as part of the overall ministry of education framework in rural areas for out-of-school children and were connected to hub schools. In the current environment, CBE is not a solution for most of the countrys urban areas. A large-scale CBE rollout will likely create a competing parallel schooling structure that could further exacerbate conflict. Additionally, without an official sanctioning of the program by the current Ministry of Education, there is no mechanism to provide credentialing for students.

Unlike CBE, education technology (ed tech) does not have a long history in Afghanistan, but reliance on digital technologies is rapidly growing and many people are looking to ed tech as a solution to solve the problems of education. However, even in stable higher-income countries, ed tech needs a robust ecosystem. In Afghanistan and other similar contexts, the challenges of logistics, technology infrastructure, content development, teacher and institutional readiness, and regulatory frameworks are daunting. Even if the infrastructure and other program issues are worked out, questions related to access, equity, and control over curriculum content will continue to be areas of concern.

Both CBE and ed tech must be incorporated as essential supplemental parts of the larger educational ecosystem but are not standalone solutions that can be scaled to solve the national concerns related to Afghanistans educational challenges.

As the TES concept note outlines, inclusive, equitable, safe, and healthy schools are essential for a holistic educational experience. In fragile and conflict-affected environments, all segments of society must have access to quality education to promote a unified national identity and foster social cohesion. Issues of inclusion must be based on local solutions and dialogue. Imposing and scaling solutions from the outsideby outsiders who may not understand the complexity of the contextwill likely cause more harm than good.

However, as the case of girls secondary access in Afghanistan illustrates, the issue of inclusion is complex and is used as political leverage locally and internationally because of its symbolic power. The discussions at our conference highlighted that the closure of girls schools has opened an unprecedented focus on education in the public sphere, particularly girls education. The Afghan population, including the diaspora, is engaged in a public debate about girls educationwith the majority expressing their support for girls education but arguing about the mechanism, including 27 out of 30 Taliban ministers. This level of public support for girls education in Afghanistan is historic. Educational stakeholders, including representatives of international agencies, must leverage this window of opportunity to acknowledge and formalize this national dialogue. We can use this opportunity to mobilize greater political ambition, commitment, and action to support local dialogue and initiatives that would transform the educational landscape toward inclusive, locally led solutions.

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Transforming education in a time of uncertainty: Insights on Afghanistan - Brookings Institution

Caught between the Taliban's gender politics and a lack of foreign funding, the public education sector in Afghanistan faces the risk of collapse, aid agencies warn.

At least $1.5 billion is required annually to keep public schools open for millions of students, to pay salaries and provide other essential educational resources, but the war-torn country is unable to provide that amount on its own.

Facing international sanctions, Afghanistan's de facto Taliban government has set a national budget of about $2.6 billion this year, which already suffers from a nearly $500 million deficit.

"Approximately 187,000 teachers will need salary support to avoid a total collapse of the education system," Ashiqullah Mandozai, a spokesperson for Save the Children in Afghanistan, told VOA.

"The new MoE [Ministry of Education] has indicated that they can only pay salaries for 30% of the current work force, which underlines a precarious position for public infrastructure without development funding," Mandozai said.

Foreign donors have stopped development funding for Afghanistan, including to the public education sector, since the Taliban seized power last year but have maintained humanitarian assistance, mostly to avert mass hunger in the country.

Donors also strongly disagree with the Taliban's educational policies, particularly with the closure of secondary schools for girls.

"Between the Taliban's bad politics and a lack of donor funding, Afghanistan's education system is being decimated," said Ghulam Mohammad Fida, director of Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow, a California-based nongovernmental organization.

The U.N. says Afghanistan's education system has been devastated by decades of sustained armed conflicts, and almost 4 million Afghan children are already deprived of schooling.

In January and February, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) paid Afghan teachers a support salary of $100 per person but stopped the payments after the Taliban reneged on their pledge to reopen secondary schools for girls in March.

"The system is undoubtedly strained, and the increased demand for education across the country will require additional support to ensure that children are able to access learning," Joe English, a UNICEF spokesperson, told VOA.

Schools closed, transformed

Secondary schools for girls in most parts of Afghanistan have been closed for more than a year as Taliban authorities say they are waiting for a verdict from religious scholars on the reopening of schools for all girls.

Despite widespread domestic and international condemnation, the Taliban have not indicated when or whether these schools will reopen.

"Depriving girls of secondary education translates to a loss of at least $500 million to the Afghan economy in the last 12 months," UNICEF said last month.

Moreover, the Taliban are increasingly transforming public schools into religious seminaries by overhauling the educational curriculum, hiring clerics as teachers and principals, and discouraging female participation in the educational system.

The "USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] also expressed concern about the conversion of public school buildings, specifically technical and vocational education and training centers and teacher-training colleges, to madrassas. Hours of instruction allocated to religious studies have also reportedly been increased during the quarter," the U.S. government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported to Congress in July.

Senior Taliban officials, such as the minister for higher education, have publicly berated modern education and have vowed for a strict Islamization of Afghanistan's educational system.

Made up entirely of male Islamic clerics, the Taliban's de facto government has failed to earn recognition from any country in the world as it faces universal condemnation for its extremist policies.

In response, Taliban leaders say they are accountable only to God and that the leadership will never budge on its pure Islamic governance.

Read more here:
Public Education in Afghanistan Faces Collapse, for Boys and Girls - Voice of America - VOA News

Kabul [Afghanistan], September 17 (ANI): The rapid growth of ISIS and the Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan has put not only Afghanistan but also the region and the rest of the world in grave danger, John Bolton, a former adviser to the US National Security Council said in an interview with Voice of America, local media reported.

Speaking at the VOA interview, Bolton said that the ever-rising influx of international terrorists in Afghanistan should worry everyone in the world and added that US intelligence findings show ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist groups are restructuring in Afghanistan, reported Khaama Press.

Moreover, the former official also slammed the Taliban for its nexus with international terrorist groups. He highlighted that the Taliban since its takeover of Kabul last August has failed to comply with the provisions of the Doha Agreement to battle terrorism.

The Taliban have proven once again that their words are not worth the paper they are printed on. They have created a worldwide danger, not only in Afghanistan, Bolton said in the VOA interview.

In the backdrop of the US drone strike killing al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former top official said that the Taliban has not fulfilled its commitments made under the Doha Agreement, especially with the stay of Zawahiri in Afghanistan, reported Khaama Press.

In the months after the Taliban seized national control, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) has managed to expand its reach to nearly all of Afghanistans provinces. This was stated by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan in November, reported Washington Post.

ISIS-K has also stepped up the tempo of its attacks, carrying out suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations. ISIS-K began operating in Afghanistan in 2015. It was started by Pakistani national Hafiz Saeed Khan, who had pledged allegiance to then-Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014.

Originally consisting mostly of Pakistani militants and based largely in the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar, it drew some recruits from the Taliban and other extremist groups.

The Islamic State follows a version of Salafism, an ultraconservative movement in Sunni Islam.

In Afghanistan, the Hazaras, a Shiite minority group, have been frequent targets of ISIS-K attacks. ISIS-K is led by Sanaullah Ghafari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, who is reported to be in eastern Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

The Taliban has a history of close ties with Al-Qaeda, a rival to the Islamic State. Though Taliban leaders pledged in a 2020 agreement with the United States to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorist groups, the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone strike in Kabul last month seemed to indicate ongoing ties between the groups, reported The Washington Post.

Before the Taliban takeover, the United Nations estimated that ISIS-K had some 1,500 to 2,200 fighters in Konar and Nangahar provinces, along with smaller cells in other parts of the country. Islamic State leaders, who think the Taliban is not sufficiently extreme, denounced its victory last year.

Late last year, the core Islamic State group gave USD 5,00,000 in new funding to ISIS-K, according to the UN monitoring team. A Taliban intelligence official acknowledged in the fall that his groups fight to overthrow the US-backed Afghan government allowed many Islamic State prisoners to escape. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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ISIS, Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan puts world in grave danger: Ex-adviser to US national security body - ThePrint