The World Bank’s new strategic partnership with Egypt through 2027

Sohaila Khaled, Wednesday 10 May 2023

The World Bank (WB) is among the international partners that Egypt relies on to bridge its $17 billion financing gap through FY2025/26.

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Egypt's Ministry of International Cooperation and the World Bank (WB) launched Sunday their new country partnership framework (CPF), which aligns with the government of Egypt’s sustainable development strategy (Egypt Vision 2030) and the country’s National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) 2050.

Here is what you need to know about the new strategic partnership, its objectives and the main sectors that it will cover.

Q: How will the partnership be implemented?

A: It will be implemented jointly by the WB and its associated institutions including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), building on the three institutions’ current portfolios and adopting a flexible approach to lending.

Q: What is the size of the cooperation portfolio with WB, IFC and MIGA?

A: According to the new CPF, the WB has 15 ongoing reconstruction and development projects with a total value of $7.33 billion and loans of $1 billion per year.

In addition, approximately $2 billion from the IFC and guarantees from the MIGA will be provided during the CPF period, FY 2023/27.

Q: Which sectors does this development cooperation portfolio cover?

A: The development cooperation portfolio is divided into several sectors, including financing, competitiveness and innovation (16 percent); social protection and employment promotion (19 percent); and health, population and nutrition (13 percent).

It also includes transportation (11 percent); water (12 percent); agriculture; food security; education; urban development and resilience (seven percent); macroeconomics; trade; investment (five percent); environment; natural resources, (5 percent) and the blue economy (3 percent).

Q: What are the key objectives of the new strategic partnership?

A: The CPF seeks to achieve three high-level outcomes:

  1. Enhancing private sector jobs by supporting the development of an environment that fosters job and investment opportunities driven by the private sector and by ensuring that the private sector operates on an even playing field.
  2. Improving the Human Capital Index through inclusive policies, equitable health and education services, efficient social security programmes and increasing shock resilience through enhanced macroeconomic management together with climate change adaptation and mitigation measures
  3. Boosting regional trade and greater infrastructure, transport, energy, and labour connectivity, in order to strengthen Egypt’s role in regional integration as well as the CPF and WBG will continue to support Egypt’s ambitions to lead the region's climate mitigation and adaptation agenda, following the presidency of COP27.

Additionally, the CPF aims to integrate two cross-cutting themes – governance and citizen involvement, and women’s empowerment – across programmes.

Q: What about the WB portfolio in Egypt? 

A: Since the inception of development cooperation relations with Egypt in 1959, along with the investment funds made by other WB institutions (MIGA and IFC), the relations may be as follows:

-The Bank has financed 175 projects in Egypt, with nearly $26 billion in many important sectors including infrastructure and capital, human rights, public sector reforms, service provision, and private sector development.

-The MIGA issued $470 million in guarantees for more than 17 ongoing projects in the infrastructure, manufacturing, and renewable energy sectors, considering the Benban solar power plant as the most important project funded by the entity.

-The IFC supports the private sector in critical areas like access to finance; fintech; climate finance; manufacturing; infrastructure and renewable energy; healthcare, and gender with a portfolio of nearly $1.5 billion in investment projects and $32 million in advisory programmes in Egypt.

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