Al-Mashat, WB Official Conclude Review on Dev't Policy Financing Framework

Minister of International Cooperation and Governor of Egypt at the World Bank Group Dr. Rania Al-Mashat met on Monday with Marina Wes, Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti, at the World Bank, to conclude the periodic review on the results of the Development Policy Financing Framework.

The framework is a result of extensive consultations that were carried out between technical teams from the Ministry of International Cooperation and the World Bank in coordination with line ministries as well as other policymakers and civil society actors to finalize 2021 reforms that push for private sector engagement, the ministry said in a statement.

In November, the virtual meetings that were held on structural reforms to implement for the years 2020/2021 focused on four pillars: preserve macroeconomic gains, promote access to women’s economic opportunities, strengthen firm and financial sector resilience and improve infrastructure sector governance for greater private sector participation.

Al-Mashat underlined that the government of Egypt is committed to maintain its pace of development by pushing ahead with the second wave of reforms and accelerate the delivery of development financing to achieve a more sustainable future.

Al-Mashat pointed to the importance of cooperation with the World Bank Group and its role in supporting development plans in line with national priorities, pointing out that this year witnessed agreement on a number of important development funds with the World Bank, the most important of which is $400 million for the Ministry of Health to implement the insurance project. Comprehensive health, and $50 million to support the emergency response to combat the coronavirus.

In 2020, Egypt signed with the World Bank Group a total of four agreements in the sectors of health, social solidarity and environment worth $1.15 billion. The most important of which is the universal health coverage, where the World Bank allocated $400 million to support Egypt’s transformational Universal Health Insurance System as the country’s pathway toward achieving universal health coverage and improving the health outcomes of its citizens.

For her part, Wes underscored the value of cooperation with Egypt and referred to Egypt as a strategic partner in implementing various impactful development projects. Wes also praised the role of the Ministry of International Cooperation in fostering dialogue and coordination between ministries and development partners.

The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and the World Bank Group (WBG) amounts to around $6 billion, across several sectors including Housing and Water waste, social protection, transportation, health, education, local development, petroleum, environment and SMEs.