U.N. pushes cash handouts to avert mass poverty in Afghanistan

FILE PHOTO: An Afghan woman buys food left behind by the US military from a peddler in Kabul, Afghanistan November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Ali Khara/File Photo

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Wednesday that a program to pay $300 million a year in cash to Afghan families with children, elderly or people with disabilities is the best way to target increasing poverty.

In what the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) described as an "alarming" socio-economic outlook for Afghanistan for the next 13 months, it also pushed a $100 million "cash for work" project to boost employment and $90 million in small business payments.