UN agency to pay salaries of Afghan health care workers

The U.N. Development Program says it will pay the salaries of Afghan health care workers as the country has been cut off from virtually all of its funds since the Taliban took power.

The World Bank previously gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Afghanistan to cover workers and other health care needs but cut off its support after the government in Kabul was no longer officially recognized by most countries.

The U.N. agency will be taking over the program from the World Bank this week in order to provide money to health care workers and the health care system in order to avoid a looming humanitarian crisis in the country, The Washington Post reported. 

Global Fund, a global health organization, donated $15 million to the program at the beginning of October. 

The organization took over after the Biden administration said last week that special licenses would be given to certain groups to give money to Afghanistan, according to the Post. 

A humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan could be on the horizon.

The world is waiting to see what type of rules the Taliban puts in place, particularly for women and girls, who were previously denied access to education and work when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

The Taliban have currently blocked many women from going back to work, and high school girls have not been allowed back in school. 

“You must absolutely give young girls in your country a future, and that is one of the things that we will look at before recognizing you,” French President Emmanuel Macron recently said.