The UN established the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan in October 2021 to help address basic human needs across the country– in areas ranging from essential services and basic infrastructure to livelihoods, disaster mitigation and response and advocacy for the promotion of human rights and women’s empowerment. Done in tandem with strengthening links to peace and humanitarian action, the Fund serves as an inter-agency mechanism where donors can channel resources to support the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan.
Status: Active
Latest reports:
Fund established:
The work of the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan are possible thanks to the generous contributions by public and private sector partners
The work of the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan is possible thanks to the efforts of . These resources are pooled and channelled to participating organizations to promote joint action and multi-stakeholder partnerships, making a difference on the ground.
The Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan is an inter-agency mechanism and pooled fund for UN joint programming to help address basic human needs in the country. The people of Afghanistan are currently experiencing fragility and multiple challenges, including poverty, macro-economic uncertainty and unemployment, food insecurity drought and heightened exposure to the risk of natural disasters such as floods. Upwards of 28.3 million Afghan people need assistance. More than 6.5 million have been displaced since December 2022.
The primary objective of STFA is to help vulnerable Afghan communities confront such severe socio-economic challenges and heightened insecurity, by enabling the implementation of the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan (UNSFA), 2023-2025. The fund supports programming in the areas of 1) Sustained Essential Services, 2) Economic Opportunities and Resilient Livelihoods, and 3) Social Cohesion, Inclusion, Gender Equality, Human Rights, and Rule of Law. STFA-supported interventions contribute to women’s empowerment, to durable solutions for returnees and IDPs, and to adaptation to climate change in vulnerable communities. Links to peace and humanitarian action are strengthened across all fund initiatives.
STFA joint programmes complement humanitarian response to meet the needs of people across multiple areas of vulnerability and enhance short-term resilience by preserving the ability of individuals and communities to cope with the impacts of multiple crisis – including economic and climate-change-induced crisis. The Fund will therefore work in complementarity with the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund and Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
The STFA Regional Joint Programme portfolio covers all eight regions of Afghanistan (Western, Eastern, Central, North-Eastern, Central Highlands, Northern, Southern, and South-Eastern regions). Four of these Regional Joint Programmes (for Southern, Northern, Eastern and South-Eastern Afghanistan) have received allocations and are currently under implementation. In addition, a sectoral health programme is being implemented in the central region, in support of the second largest pediatric hospital of the country.
The Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan has a two-tier decision-making and coordination structures through the Advisory Board and Steering Committee.
The governance structure of the Fund is led by the Steering Committee (SC), which is chaired by the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General/UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator and co-chaired by a donor representative. Members of the Steering Committee include representatives of all contributing donors andParticipating UN Organizations; the Fund Secretariat and the Administrative Agent also participate ex-officio. To strengthen coherence and ensure strategic cooperation, the Head of the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund Secretariat will be invited as an observer to the SC meetings. The Steering Committee is responsible for providing oversight and exercising overall accountability for the Fund, approving funding priorities, reviewing and approving funding for joint UN programmes, leading resource mobilization efforts, instructing the Administrative Agent to disburse the resources to the Participating UN Organization, reviewing the Fund status and its overall progress, reviewing and approving the periodic progress reports, commissioning reviews and "lessons learned" reports on the performance of the Fund; and approving amendments to the Terms of Reference of the Fund, as required after due consultation with stakeholders.
The Technical Coordination Working Group (TCWG) is composed of representatives of UN agencies and donors. It is tasked to prepare and regularly review/update recommendations for the allocation strategy, including geographic and thematic prioritization criteria, for the consideration of, and final decision by, the Steering Committee. The TCWG, in this process, ensures that prioritization criteria are well informed by actual needs reported from the field, as well as through relevant humanitarian coordination mechanisms (under the Humanitarian Response Plan), with a view to leveraging their needs assessments and ensure complementarities in the prioritization exercise. The Group provides technical guidance and high-level oversight to ongoing projects and makes recommendations to ensure synergies and efficiencies are capitalized across thematic windows and/or regions as much as possible – with a view to minimizing potential duplications and facilitating/promoting collaboration, complementarities, and economies of scale.
The Trust Fund Management Unit (TFMU) is the Fund Secretariat and responsible for operational functioning, as well as provision of technical and management support to the Steering Committee. The Secretariat, hosted within UNDP, is responsible for executing and coordinating all Fund management functions of the Fund; planning and preparing meetings of the Steering Committee; facilitating the work of the TCWG; submitting Fund Transfer Requests to the Administrative Agent; facilitating collaboration and communication between Participating Organizations, facilitating systematic cooperation with the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, developing and updating the Fund's Operations Manual; monitoring, evaluating, and controlling operational risks and programme implementation; consolidating the narrative of annual and final reports and presenting them to the Steering Committee and the Administrative Agent; drafting the resource mobilization strategy; managing and supporting communications, public information, and visibility; liaising with the Administrative Agent on Fund administration issues, and bringing together technical expertise from the participating UN organisations.
The Secretariat also uses informal mechanisms to interact with donors at the technical level to prepare for the Steering Committee meetings. The costs of the Secretariat are charged to the Fund as direct costs. The budget for the Secretariat is submitted to the Steering Committee on a regular basis (every two years, subject to annual reviews) and the Secretariat staffing structure is adjusted by the Steering Committee as per needs and budget availability.
Programme implementation is the responsibility of Participating Organizations. Each organization is programmatically and financially responsible for resources received in accordance with its own regulations, rules, directives and procedures. Indirect costs of the PUNO recovered through programme support costs will be harmonized at 7%. Implementing Partners can receive funding from the Fund through the PUNOs.
Funds are routed by way of a pass-through mechanism. Participating Organizations receive funds through the Administrative Agent, Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) Office. The Administrative Agent is responsible for the receipt, administration and management of contributions from donors, disbursement of funds to Participating Organizations, and consolidation and dissemination of progress reports to donors.
The work of is possible thanks to the efforts of contributors. Since together they have contributed . In the annual contributions amounted to .
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Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan is currently supporting count_projects ongoing projectscount_globalInterregional and count_countries country-specific. This table shows the most recently approved ongoing projects.
All project financial information can be found in the Financials section, including delivery analysis by organization, theme and project; project financial status by country and by theme.
Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan
Contributions to trust funds administered by the MPTF Office are pooled with other partner resources to achieve greater impact and leverage the SDGs. This map provides a geographical breakdown of all investments.
* The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations or UNDP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
> $55M $55M - $25M $25M - $5M < $5M
Budget amounts in US$
We are thrilled to launch our #crowdfunding campaign, OMID=Hope. Through this initiative, we aim to raise US$ 1 million to support displaced #Afghans by establishing 1,000 local businesses, creating thousands of local jobs.#Donate now to provide displaced Afghans with the… pic.twitter.com/59nZd2VJYt
— Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan (@UN_STFA) October 2, 2024
Afghanistan risks becoming a forgotten crisis, yet many Afghans face massive & pressing challenges.
— Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan 🇺🇳 (@UN_STFA) June 27, 2024
Learn how @UN_STFA is working to establish foundations for long-term resilience from STFA Chairperson @IndrikaRatwatte's latest blog. #DeliveringAsOne
👉https://t.co/gU3Y7yyN34 pic.twitter.com/L0WSJVYPWF
.@UN_STFA Steering Committee approved crucial interventions to support basic needs of 1000s of Afghan IDPs, returnees & address drug use disorders.
— Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan 🇺🇳 (@UN_STFA) June 26, 2024
Message from STFA Chair @IndrikaRatwatte on why STFA remains a crucial vehicle for supporting basic needs in AFG👇#DeliveringAsOne pic.twitter.com/x33OqtXzB3
📢Hot Off the Press!
— Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan 🇺🇳 (@UN_STFA) May 29, 2024
STFA's Annual Report 2023 is out!🌟
Despite challenges, we continue to support basic human needs of Afghans, mainly women&girls.
🙏to our 12 donors🇨🇿🇩🇰🇫🇮🇩🇪🇱🇺🇳🇱🇳🇴🇸🇪🇹🇷🇶🇦🇮🇸, 17 UN organizations🇺🇳,& partners.
Dive in:🔗https://t.co/cMmAJ0SmPH#DeliveringAsOne pic.twitter.com/Ek8X0S9MJa
Two years have passed, yet the journey continues, with STFA’s unwavering commitment to #DeliveringAsOne for the betterment of the people of Afghanistan.🌟 pic.twitter.com/aX3SXLJeuk
— Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan 🇺🇳 (@UN_STFA) October 23, 2023
Daniel Peter Endres, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Email: daniel.endres@un.org
Hiroko Massey, Trust Fund Manager, Email: hiroko.massey@undp.org
Mazen Gharzeddine, Programme Management Specialist, Email: mazen.gharzeddine@undp.org
Munir Hossain, Finance Management Specialist, Email: Munir.hossain@undp.org
Yama Babakarkhail, Coordination Specialist, Email: yama.babakarkhail@undp.org
Olga Aleshina, Senior Portfolio Manager, Email: olga.aleshina@undp.org
Dawit Ghebremichael, Portfolio Associate, Email: dawit.ghebremichael@undp.org
Patricia Ababio, Finance Associate, Email: patricia.ababio@undp.org
Raul de Mora Jimenez, Communications & SDG Specialist, Email: raul.de.mora@undp.org