The European Union said Tuesday it would triple its humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, part of a broader effort by global financial leaders to help tackle the country’s growing economic and humanitarian crisis.

Finance ministers from the world’s 20 largest industrialized and developing economies also asked the World Bank to explore ways to redirect funding in existing programs to international agencies operating in Afghanistan.

Finance...

The European Union said Tuesday it would triple its humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, part of a broader effort by global financial leaders to help tackle the country’s growing economic and humanitarian crisis.

Finance ministers from the world’s 20 largest industrialized and developing economies also asked the World Bank to explore ways to redirect funding in existing programs to international agencies operating in Afghanistan.

Finance leaders are considering tapping the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, according to a person familiar with negotiations. The fund had been providing around $3 billion a year to help keep the country afloat.

The EU and G-20 actions come amid United Nations warnings that money pledged for the country wasn’t reaching Afghans as international donors try to sidestep providing funds directly to the Taliban.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said it would provide €1 billion, equivalent to $1.15 billion, for its humanitarian aid package for Afghans in the country and its neighbors, up from a previous commitment of €300 million. It also said it is considering ways to provide assistance to Afghans working in critical sectors in the country.

After a meeting of G20 leaders Tuesday, the White House said leaders agreed to “maintain a laser-focus on our enduring counterterrorism efforts” and “reaffirmed their collective commitment to provide humanitarian assistance directly to the Afghan people.”

The Taliban have been trying to project an image of safety and normalcy since retaking power. But as WSJ’s Sune Rasmussen reports from Kabul, harsh punishments, violence, and a crackdown on basic freedoms are becoming the reality. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Projects under the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which is managed by the World Bank on behalf of Afghanistan’s government, have been frozen since the Taliban took power in August. No decision has been made, the person said. But given concerns about the funds going directly to a group designated under terror sanctions by the United Nations and the U.S., the money would be channeled through the U.N., they said.

After the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, EU countries said they would step up their humanitarian response, in part to help Afghanistan’s neighbors absorb people fleeing the country and to prevent a large migration wave to Europe. While tens of thousands of Afghans have left, most of the country’s neighbors have closed land borders, limiting the numbers leaving.

The new EU package combines additional funds for Afghanistan’s neighbors to handle migration and prevent terrorism and migrant smuggling with in-country support for Afghans.

That includes €250 million in funds for nontraditional aid purposes, which officials said could include helping pay Afghan nurses or teachers to prevent a collapse of basic Afghan services.

However with the banking system almost paralyzed and Western countries pledging not to fund the Taliban, it isn’t yet clear how that assistance will be delivered. EU officials have said they are in discussions with the U.S. and other partners on how to tackle the problem.

The EU and its member states no longer have any presence on the ground in Kabul although Brussels has said it is discussing with the Taliban re-establishing a mission in the country.

A nurse checked a woman’s blood pressure at a government-run maternity ward in Kandahar province earlier this month.

Photo: elise blanchard/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The EU has frozen its development funds for Afghanistan and said recognition of the Taliban government will only come if the Taliban respect human rights, sever ties with terror groups and establish a broad-based government.

“We must do all we can to avert a major humanitarian and socio-economic collapse in Afghanistan,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, noting the onset of winter when conditions could further deteriorate. “We need to do it fast,” she added.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi

said after the G-20 call, which he hosted, that it will be necessary to make resources available to prevent the collapse of the Afghan payment and banking systems. He also urged the Taliban to ease humanitarian access to the country.

“The first thing we need to ask the Taliban is that the U.N. and other countries bringing the assistance need to be able to enter and exit the country,” Mr. Draghi said.

The U,N. warned last week that “pledges and commitments by donors must urgently be turned into reality to ensure humanitarian organizations can respond before it is too late.”

The U.N. says that its emergency appeal made in September for $600 million is only 38% funded.

More than 70% of the revenue of the deposed Afghan government came from international aid, which has now been almost completely eliminated.

Aid organizations have yet to put in place structures to bypass the Afghan government, and get money into the country to pay salaries, say humanitarian agencies.

To maintain at least some healthcare services, previously funded by foreign aid, the U.N. has made an internal loan of $45 million while it waits for promised funds to be delivered. Health workers haven't been paid for months.

Millions of people displaced by years of war need shelter, and food stores need to be set up across the country ahead of Afghanistan’s harsh winter, when snow will make some areas inaccessible.

“If the commitments made by the international community are not delivered on now, millions of displaced Afghans will struggle to survive over the coming winter,” Marin Din Kajdomcaj, UNHCR Deputy Representative in Afghanistan, said last week.

—Giovanni Legorano contributed to this article.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com, Saeed Shah at saeed.shah@wsj.com and Ian Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com