This post is also available in: Arabic
Photo: ©Flickr/Caleb Roenigk
On 19 May 2015, 13 Tunisian civil society organizations and individuals have submitted a request to the World Bank with their asks regarding the Tunisian Country Partnership Framework (CPF) consultation process. First and foremost, the organizations are asking that clear information be posted on the Bank’s website regarding the CPF timeline. As it stands, there is no information about the CPF process in Tunisia either on the Bank’s country webpage or on the Bank’s consultation hub.
The process of developing the CPF for Tunisia has seen delays, especially with the recent change of Country Director for the Maghreb. Stakeholder consultations were initially planned to take place in April, then deferred to May, and the latest information is that consultations will begin in June. With the new Country Director slated to start her position in July though, it is unclear if the consultations will be postponed again.
The signing organizations also asked for more information as to whether the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) – a necessary analytical document that feeds into the CPF – has already been prepared for Tunisia, and whether civil society and community members in Tunisia are going to be consulted on it. They requested that any available drafts of the SCD or CPF be disseminated in Arabic and French as soon as possible so that there is a real opportunity for effective citizen participation. The signing organizations also asked that the Bank holds consultations in regions outside of the capital Tunis, namely in the following regions: Tataouine, Qabes, Al Qasrayn, Al Qayrawan, Beja, and Bizerte. They asked that at least one of the consultation sessions be held for civil society and community members separately from the private sector, and that the Bank discloses all relevant documents in both languages at least 10 days prior to the date of the consultation, so that participants are given adequate time to prepare. In terms of feedback, the signing organizations asked that the minutes of the consultation session be recorded and uploaded on to the Bank’s webpage, and that the subsequent draft CPF then be disseminated with tracked changes such that those consulted may know how their input was considered.
The organizations sent their request to the World Bank office in Tunisia, the Country Director’s office in Morocco, and a number of senior Bank staff at the headquarters level.
Read the Tunisian CSOs’ asks here