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The World Bank office in Tunis held a session in June, 2015 to present and discuss its Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD)[1] for Tunisia. Following this session the participating group of university professors and representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs) submitted their comments to the Bank in a brief paper containing their points pertaining to both the SCD and the Country Partnership Framework (CPF). Among the comments made by the CSOs was that the Bank must reach out to the regions to hold consultations. In response, the Bank has invited the group of CSOs for a half-day session to be held in one of the interior regions during the week of 24 August, 2015, and the CSOs have suggested Sfax as a venue for this session. However, it remains unclear what the nature of that meeting is going to be and what its relation to the ongoing CPF is, especially that the Bank has already published the full SCD document on its website, and so it is not clear whether this session is meant to serve as consultation for the CPF. This is especially important since the CSOs had been advised that the final SCD document is pending the government’s publishing of its five-year developmental plan, which is expected soon. The government is currently organizing regional meetings for the discussion of that plan.
The CSO group continues to collaborate and are currently working on the preparation for this meeting. They remain in wait for more information regarding CPF timeline, upcoming consultations and their locations.
[1] Systemic Country Diagnostic (SCD) is an in-depth study by the World Bank to identify and analyze the main opportunities and obstacles for poverty elimination and shared prosperity in a country. The Bank builds its Country Partnership Framework for a country (its involvement strategy for 4 years) on the findings of the SCD among other inputs.