Egyptian, Yemeni and Tunisian CSOs call for inclusive and effective World Bank country strategy consultations

                                                        FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 7, 2014

Civil society organizations (CSOs) from Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia have submitted a document to their respective World Bank country offices with their proposals for how they would like to be consulted for upcoming Country Partnership Strategies (CPS) being developed in their countries.

The CPS is a three to five- year strategy the Bank develops for its engagement in a country. All operations that the Bank conducts in a given country must be in line with the final and approved CPS. Given the weight of such a document, the Bank should consult with the country’s government, civil society, and other local stakeholders on these strategies. It is up to the Bank to make sure that these consultations are inclusive, participatory and involve multiple stakeholders representing diverse interests. However, many CSOs have not been satisfied with the ways in which they have been consulted previously‏.

Because CSOs are interested in seeing the most effective and participatory consultations possible, they want to have their voices heard from the beginning of the process and proactively show the Bank how they want to be consulted based on their previous experiences. This is especially timely given that “the World Bank has shown interest in listening to civil society” expressed Yahia Shawkat from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, “and so we’d like to see our proposals taken on board”, he continued.

The 13 organizations who developed and endorsed the document are calling for the Bank to disclose all relevant documents in Arabic and in a timely way – including drafts of the CPS and supporting documents – such that organizations can prepare well in advance for the consultations; hold multiple phases of consultations; have consultations open to all civil society who wish to participate and provide opportunities for different regions of a country to participate; and among other asks, provide feedback to those consulted such that they know how their input was considered.

As Resonate! Yemen’s Sarah Al-Faiq noted, “The Bank usually invites civil society organizations in Yemen to a lot of meetings, but we look forward to a structured engagement that will allow CSOs in Yemen to participate more effectively in the Bank’s consultations, and will give CSOs a clear idea on what happens with the input we provide.” Confirming the importance of this proposal, Touensa President Yezid Skandrani stated that, “To enhance democracy, citizen participation in decision making is critical.”

The Bank’s Egypt office has provided initial positive feedback and is scheduled to meet Egyptian CSOs in the coming days to discuss their country-specific proposals, while the Yemenis and Tunisians are also developing country-specific asks and look forward to fruitful discussions with their respective offices on the matter. The asks which can be found here were developed and endorsed by the following organizations:

Media Contacts:

Tunis:
Yezid Skandrani
Touensa
yezid.skandrani@gmail.com
+(216) 24 951 751

Sana’a:
Sarah Al-Faiq
Resonate! Yemen
sarah.alfaiq@resonateyemen.org
+(967) 1 454416

Washington, DC:
Amy Ekdawi
Bank Information Center
aekdawi@bicusa.org
+(1)202 6240620