The World Bank group held on Wednesday its second round of discussions in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan to draw up the document of the new partnership strategy which will guide the group work during the coming five years.
The 2015-2019 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) aims at supporting Egypt's development priorities consistent with the regional strategy of the World Bank Group in the Middle East and North Africa and the World Bank Group's overarching goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
The consultations around the CPF were launched last year and benefited from a wide spectrum of input from the government, civil society, youth, private sector, academia and development partners. Furthermore, online consultation took place to maximize reaching out to online users and listen to their development priorities.
The purpose of the current consultations is to report back to the participants from last year's meetings on the progress so far, and how their input has been taken on board. In parallel, the International Finance Corporation ( IFC ), the private sector arm of the World Bank, is holding meetings with private sector representatives
"We are very pleased to come back to our stakeholders and inform them on how we made use of their valuable input and feedback on how best we can support Egypt. We are very pleased to reach out to various governorates especially those in Upper Egypt," said Gerard Byam, World Bank's Acting Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region.
He expected the Country Partnership Framework to be officially presented to the World Bank Group's Board of Directors in May 2015 after it has been discussed with the Government of Egypt.