Three major summits were held to discuss the Afghan economic situation over the past one year as the country plunged into a severe economic crisis. After the fall of the former government, the country faced the suspension of international aid and the freezing of Afghan central bank’s assets of more than $9 billion.

On August 15th, the Islamic Emirate swept into power after the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani collapsed.

In December 2021, the Organization of the Islamic Countries (OIC) held an extraordinary meeting of its Foreign Ministers in Islamabad where they discussed the economic, political, and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.  A draft resolution was passed to start a humanitarian trust fund to channel humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The member states agreed to "establish a Humanitarian Trust Fund, under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank, to serve as a vehicle to channel humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan including in partnership with other international actors,” the resolution reads.

In April, The UN held a high-level virtual pledging event in cooperation with the United Kingdom, Germany and Qatar on Afghanistan, where a total of amount of $2.44 billion had been promised.

The UN earlier said it was seeking $4.4 billion to alleviate the crisis in Afghanistan.

A larger part of the aid was managed through humanitarian organizations.

“The international aid was not effective over the last year because the amount of aid decreased, and, second, it was not spent in areas where it could be economically effective,” said Darya Khan Baheer, an economist.

After the Islamic Emirate swept into power, the first economic conference was held on January 19 at the Arg. The conference was attended by senior members of the Islamic Emirate, representatives of 20 countries and top UN officials.

Then special envoy of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, told the conference that the transfer of cash to Afghanistan would continue until the banking system was revived in the country.

“We secured the permission to import cash to address the crippling lack of liquidity, assisted by your administration in doing so. We imported in December, last month of last year, over 120 million dollars and this month another 32 million,” she said.

Talking at the same conference, Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund said that the short-term aid was not beneficial for Afghanistan.

“A path should be recognized to help the people permanently. The short-term aid is not beneficial for the nation,” he said.

Despite freezing Afghan assets and the suspension of direct aid to the government, the international community continued to provide aid through humanitarian organizations to Afghanistan.

Talking to an Uzbek TV channel, the US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West said that Washington has provided nearly $1 billion for Afghanistan since mid-August.

The World Food Program (WFP) said that it has provided food and other material worth $15 million until the end of 2021.

The WFP in a recent report said that Afghanistan continues to face the highest prevalence of insufficient food consumption globally as 92 percent of households struggle to meet their food needs.