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June 2015
Following a letter that multiple Tunisian CSOs sent to the World Bank office in Tunis with their asks regarding the Tunisian Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and Country Partnership Framework (CPF) consultation process, the signatories of the letter – along with several other CSOs and academics – were invited to participate in a discussion on a finalized version of theSCD on Thursday, June 4th 2015.
After the SCD executive summary was presented, participants took the opportunity of the Q&A session to provide some of their reactions to the document which a number of CSOs intend to send to the Bank in writing soon. While these CSOs had very much hoped to be involved at an earlier stage of the SCD development process, they were pleased that the Bank’s Maghreb Region Director, Marie Françoise acknowledged the importance of civil society engagement and promised to hold a regular meeting with Tunisian civil society every three months. Participants emphasized their concern that the World Bank’s webpage for Tunisia still has no clear information on the CPF process, including a timeline, and they were promised an update of the Bank’s webpage soon. The Bank also announced that it is waiting for the Tunisian government to announce its five year strategy for 2016-2020 (currently under discussion), following which the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) process will pick up again.
The session was held at the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management of Tunis (FSEGT) and speakers from the Bank included: Marie-Françoise Marie-Nelly (based in Rabat); Eileen Murray (Country Manager), Jean-Luc Bernasconi and Sadok Ayari from the Tunis office, and Fabrice Houdart and Joelle Businger from the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC.