Egypt’s Al-Mashat Addresses WBG, Urges Enhanced Collaboration, Balancing Development Priorities

Egypt’s Al-Mashat addresses WBG, urges enhanced collaboration, balancing development priorities.

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, delivered a speech as the Governor of Egypt to the World Bank Group (WBG) during the G24 Governors and Ministers Meeting held in Washington.

The address took place at the WBG and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2024 Spring Meetings.

Minister Al-Mashat commended the WBG’s efforts in rolling out the Evolution Roadmap, which encompasses various initiatives aimed at creating a more efficient and impactful institution.

Emphasizing the need for action, she concurred with President Ajay Banga's assertion that it is time for implementation.

The Minister underscored the importance of striking a balance between funding climate-related projects and addressing core developmental challenges, such as poverty eradication and shared prosperity.

She stressed the necessity of supporting the structuring and bankability of projects to ensure their successful implementation.

Highlighting the need for a comprehensive financing model, Minister Al-Mashat called for a Framework of Financial Incentives (FFI) that encourages countries to address eight globally identified challenges.

These challenges, endorsed by Governors in Marrakech, include climate change adaptation, supporting fragile states, epidemic prevention, energy access, food security, water security, digitalization, and biodiversity protection.

To effectively tackle these challenges, the Minister emphasized the importance of strengthening country ownership, fostering demand-driven engagement, and scaling up private capital mobilization.

Adequate funding for the Global Solution Accelerator Platform (GSAP) and Livable Planet Fund (LPF) was highlighted as crucial to meeting global development aspirations.

Regarding the International Development Association (IDA), Minister Al-Mashat stressed the need for increased financial capacity to confront economic challenges in developing countries. She expressed support for a strong replenishment of IDA21 while urging contributing countries to safeguard concessional financing for the most vulnerable nations.

The Minister emphasized the significant gap between commitments and financing for climate action, calling for the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund.

While acknowledging the discussions around innovative financing tools like debt-for-climate swaps, she emphasized the need to scale up these operations to achieve the dual goals of climate action and debt reduction.

Minister Al-Mashat encouraged enhanced collaboration among multilateral development banks (MDBs) and international financial institutions (IFIs) to ensure a harmonized agenda for implementing global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aligned with national strategies.

She highlighted the importance of country platforms that facilitate collaboration, skillfully channel concessional resources, attract private finance, and foster knowledge sharing.