Egypt, World Bank to extend Country Partnership Framework

The meeting was attended by Marina Wes, Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti; Mark Eugene Ahern, World Bank’s Lead Country Economist, and Mohamed Hisham El-Shiaty, Senior Private Sector Specialist.

Al-Mashat discussed extending the Country Partnership Framework (CPF), in order to maintain the momentum and build on the strong progress achieved over the course of the 2015-2019 CPF and its two-year extension that followed.

She pointed out that Egypt is taking significant and rapid steps to achieve Egypt’s Vision 2030, the Ministry is gearing towards achieving the following pillars: promoting a more inclusive economy for Egyptian businesses, women and youth, in addition to accelerating Egypt’s green economy transition and anchoring CPF DPF’s prior actions to be serving the environmental, sustainable, and social sectors particularly in light of COP26, along with ?enhancing the country’s competitiveness by supporting private sector growth and strengthening governance.

It is worth noting that Egypt will host the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP 27) in 2022.

In this regard, Al-Mashat noted that this reflects Egypt’s regional leadership position to lead green transformation efforts, and the importance of mobilizing innovative financing tools such as blended finance and risk-reduction to increase climate finance geared towards sustainable infrastructure.

She further noted that the world, especially emerging countries, is in increasing need of financing for climate action, especially in light of the inability to provide previous pledges to secure $100 billion annually from developed countries for climate action.

She also stressed the importance of fostering dialogue to yield results for national initiatives, such as the “Decent Life” initiative, which is regarded as the largest national project in the history of Egypt, aimed at achieving integrated development for more than half of the population at the national level.

In October, the World Bank approved a $360 million DPF loan to support Egypt’s post-pandemic recovery, which focuses on three pillars, including: enhancing macro-fiscal sustainability, enabling private sector development, and fostering women’s economic inclusion.

The ongoing development cooperation portfolio with the World Bank includes 18 projects in various sectors, including education, health, transportation, social solidarity, petroleum, housing, sanitation, local development and the environment worth $5.8bn.