The UN has held an international pledging conference aiming to raise $4.4 billion to fund "urgent" aid efforts in Afghanistan.

Co-hosted by the UK, Germany and Qatar, the event marked the largest ever humanitarian appeal by the organization.

According to the UN, 97% of Afghans could be living in poverty by the middle of this year and 24.4 million people in the country now need aid to survive. More than half the population is facing acute hunger, including 9 million in need of emergency food supplies.

"You couldn't paint a darker picture. We had hoped by this time that you would see some basic recovery coming through and we're not yet there," UN assistant secretary-general Kanni Wignaraja told CGTN Europe.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the event calling for "unconditional" humanitarian support: "The international community must make cash available so the Afghan economy can breathe and the Afghan people can eat.

"Wealthy, powerful countries cannot ignore the consequences of their decisions on the most vulnerable," he said.

Since the withdrawal of foreign troops, the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's takeover in August, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply. Significantly dependent on foreign aid over the past two decades, Afghanistan's economy has "all but collapsed," said Gutteres.

Many countries have scaled back assistance amid concerns about how the Taliban are ruling. The UK, U.S. and EU have all said aid should be conditional and dependent on safeguards around human rights and those of women and girls.

The UN's Wignaraja said allowing secondary school girls back into classrooms nationwide was essential: "Denying education is denying a lifetime of not just opportunity but of a contribution to a country. Any country cannot afford it, least of all Afghanistan."

The U.S. - which led the 20-year international war effort in Afghanistan - pledged $204 million in new funding at the event. "This aid will go straight to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and the UN. The Taliban will not control our humanitarian funding," its UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

The UK pledged $374 million, saying it would match last year's total humanitarian funding for Afghans, with Norway pledging $80m.

Taliban recognition

While the UN conference took place virtually, senior Taliban officials were in China on Thursday for meetings with regional neighbors including Russia, Iran and Pakistan.

Chinese state councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi chaired the event, which also welcomed representatives from Indonesia and Qatar.

While no major country has formally recognized the Taliban's claims to power, some in the region are looking for ways to work with the de-facto authorities.

"Any effort, whether it's by China, the U.S., any European country, other Asian countries to promote dialog with the Taliban is in my book is a good thing," said Wignaraja.

"Who leads those openings isn't so much the issue but that the space is opened, so that at the end of the day, the measure of all of this is that there's peace, stability and opportunity for Afghans in Afghanistan."