World Bank commits to deepen reforms to benefit middle-income countries in Africa

“We have taken your feedback and tasked an institutional Working Group to come up with new innovative ways of serving MICs and are finalising an Action Plan to guide our engagement with MICs in Africa,” said World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at recent meeting.

The high-level consultation was held in Washington, DC, on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. It was as a follow-up to two earlier consultations, held in Tunis (Tunisia) in March 2006 and in Cairo (Egypt) in March 2008.

“The key objective of the Africa MIC Action Plan stresses the need for the Bank to provide services better, faster and cheaper; moving rapidly from development lending to a development partnership in MICs,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. The Africa MIC Action Plan proposes a three-year pilot of a different way of doing business in MICs - anchored in part on two pilot projects to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Botswana and Swaziland.

Recognising that MICs value the Bank as a provider of cutting-edge knowledge services as well as financing, efforts within the Bank to better serve MICs focus on four key areas: (i) improving client responsiveness; (ii) expanding the range and utilisation of financial products; (iii) enhancing the Bank's knowledge services; and (iv) strengthening synergies between different parts of the Bank Group.

“Important progress has been made on this agenda. As a result of recent reforms, the World Bank Group has drastically cut back on the costs and time needed to prepare projects; extended lending to MICs in local currency; and provided lending to sub-sovereign entities,” explained Juan Jose Daboub, World Bank Managing Director.

“We are seeking innovation in the way we traditionally do business,” said Daniela Gressani, the World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Region, pointing to ongoing pilots for the use of country systems in procurement in Morocco and in environmental safeguards in Egypt and Tunisia.

Finance ministers lauded the Bank Group for the successful implementation of reforms since the Tunis consultation, notably the reduction in loan pricing; improvements in the response time and the speed of loan processing; and efforts to increase the use of country systems and to delegate more authority to field-based staff.

Going forward, the World Bank Group together with its partners in MICs and regional development institutions will continue to foster cooperation on agreed priorities and work on initiatives to advance the dialogue, including through consultations.