The World Bank Group (WBG) launched on Sunday consultations with diversified group of stakeholders in preparation for its new partnership framework with Egypt, which will guide the Group's engagement in the country during the period of 2015-2019. To inform the process, consultations took place Sunday in Cairo, in addition to planned events in Alexandria and Aswan with various stakeholder groups including academia, civil society, youth-led NGOs, and private sector. The Framework aims at supporting Egypt's development priorities consistent with the regional strategy of the World Bank Group in the Middle East and North Africa and the WBG overarching goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. "We look forward to listening to input and feedback from various stakeholders on how best we can support Egypt. We are very pleased to reach out to various governorates especially those in Upper Egypt," said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Country Director Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. The CPF is a joint document of the three WBG institutions - the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - and will build on their respective strengths and areas of expertise. From her part, Nada Shousha, Country Manager for Egypt, Libya and Yemen said: "IFC mission is to provide people with an opportunity to escape poverty by supporting the private sector in emerging markets. The consultation process will help us assess development priorities, and in turn help us focus our efforts to how we can support Egypt in its transition," The regional consultations demonstrate the significance of lagging regions as a development priority for Egypt and also underline the World Bank's keenness for inclusion and listening to input and feedback from stakeholders across the nation. The World Bank Group launched its new consultations website and survey for Egypt as part of the ongoing consultations which will help develop the Group's CPF with Egypt. Meanwhile, World Bank Group has launched an online platform; Consultations website where Egypt's government, civil society, NGOs, youth, academia and other partners, such as the private sector and the donor community, define the priorities on which the cooperation between the WBG and Egypt must concentrate during the implementation of the CPF. It contains background information on previous and current engagement, and details for the consultations. The online survey will help the WBG understands the main challenges facing Egypt as well as the areas where the World Bank Group can help.
