The World Bank Group's second round of discussions with various stakeholders throughout Egypt is taking place this week in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan to prepare for a new partnership strategy which will guide the Group's engagement in the country over the next five years. The 2015-2019 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) 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 World Bank Group's overarching goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The consultations around the CPF were launched last year and benefited from a wide spectrum of input from the government, civil society, youth, private sector, academia and development partners. Furthermore, online consultation took place to maximize reaching out to online users and listen to their development priorities. The purpose of the current consultations is to report back to the participants from last year's meetings on the progress so far, and how their input has been taken on board. In parallel, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, is holding meetings with private sector representatives "We are very pleased to come back to our stakeholders and inform them on how we made use of their valuable input and feedback on how best we can support Egypt. We are very pleased to reach out to various governorates especially those in Upper Egypt," said Gerard Byam, World Bank's Acting Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region. The Country Partnership Framework will be officially presented to the World Bank Group's Board of Directors in May 2015 after it has been discussed with the Government of Egypt. Consultations in Upper Egypt demonstrate the significance of lagging regions as a development priority for Egypt and also underline the World Bank's keen interest in listening to input and feedback from stakeholders across the country. 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. The current portfolio of the World Bank Group in Egypt includes 26 projects for a total commitment of US$5.4 billion in FY15, including 17 IBRD lending operations ($5.27 billion) and 9 major Trust Funds ($139.6 million). The World Bank finances projects for faster delivery of benefits to the people of Egypt in key sectors including energy, transport, water and sanitation, agriculture and irrigation as well as health and education. Between FY11-14, IFC committed a total of almost $1.1 billion in 20 projects (of which $392 million is mobilization). IFC has focused on supporting companies with the ability to create jobs, boosting access to finance for small and medium enterprises, and demonstrating Egypt's long-term potential to investors. IFC has also worked on promoting regulatory reforms designed to spur economic growth; and boosting the skills of young job seekers. In FY2013, MIGA issued a guarantee for US$150 million, reinsuring the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation's coverage to Apache Corporation for the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas helping to keep up the supply of energy with the growing domestic demand.
