This post is also available in: Arabic
Civil society organizations in Egypt have submitted a parallel Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to the World Bank office in Cairo detailing what they envision should be the strategic priorities for World Bank-financed development projects in Egypt. In addition, the groups also submitted specific comments and proposed amendments to the current CPF draft. The World Bank Group has been in the process of developing a new CPF for Egypt, in partnership with the Egyptian government, and in consultation with other stakeholders, since March of 2014. The new CPF document is meant to provide a strategic framework for all of the Bank’s development operations in Egypt from 2015-2019.
The Bank recently decided to significantly modify the current draft CPF for Egypt, following wide-ranging concerns raised by stakeholders during consultations over two phases in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan. It is not yet clear whether the new CPF will be a revision of the earlier draft or would entail the commissioning of an entirely new CPF document. In their communication with the Bank’s Cairo office, the CSOs also posed questions regarding how the Bank intends to engage civil society organizations in the final phases of developing the CPF document, while taking into account the CSOs’ most recent submission of a parallel CPF and comments on the current draft.
Egyptian civil society groups also continue to call for the release of the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD), typically written prior to the CPF, which they consider essential to ensuring a productive and effective citizen engagement process.
Click these links to read the CSO’s parallel CPF, as well as their comments on the current draft CPF (both documents are available in Arabic).