The countdown is on. As the 2023-2027 Country Partnership Framework comes to an end, Côte d'Ivoire did not wait for the home stretch to negotiate what comes next. It is in this spirit of anticipation that Dr Souleymane Diarrassouba, Governor of the World Bank Group for Côte d'Ivoire, received Harold Tavares, on an official visit to Abidjan until September 12. This mission is part of a cycle of consultations that the Administrator is conducting with the 23 member states of his constituency, the Africa II Group. On the agenda of the discussions, the progress of the Ivorian portfolio of the World Bank, which currently has 21 active projects for a total amount of 4.7 billion dollars, as well as development financing priorities. But most of the discussions focused on the future. 

Harold Tavares invited the Ivorian authorities to immediately identify the areas they wish to see included in the next Country Partnership Framework, particularly in the water, electricity and artificial intelligence sectors. The Administrator also insisted on the need to better coordinate the various institutions of the World Bank Group, notably the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to strengthen support for the Ivorian private sector. In response, the Minister of Planning and Development welcomed this approach as part of the National Development Plan 2026-2030. “The PND 2026-2030 sets our priorities for the next five years.We must prepare the next Country Partnership Framework now so that it supports these priorities and fully mobilizes the instruments of the World Bank Group, particularly in favor of private sector development,” declared Dr Souleymane Diarrassouba. The Minister added that the objective of this renewed partnership is to make it “an additional lever for the implementation of the Plan and the improvement of living conditions” of the Ivorian populations.