WASHINGTON, April 7, 2016 – The World Bank Group (WBG) Board of Executive Directors today endorsed the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) with Colombia, which establishes the operational program until 2021. The work plan focuses on supporting the country’s efforts to maintain and consolidate development under a framework of peace and a complex external economic situation.
The new partnership for the next five years is flexible and selective, contemplating three main areas of work: balanced territorial development, increased inclusion and social mobility through better service provision, and support for fiscal sustainability and productivity. Support for peace building efforts is a crosscutting theme of this strategy.
“Colombia has achieved significant economic and social progress, and is about to reach a peace agreement that will generate multiple opportunities for the well-being of its people,” said Gerardo Corrochano, World Bank Director for Colombia and Mexico. “This is a good time to increase the sources of an inclusive and fiscally, socially and environmentally-sustainable economic growth, one that allows the country to navigate external shocks, as well as respond to the financial needs arising from peace.”
With this strategy, millions of mostly low income Colombians will benefit directly and indirectly from a series of measures that will generate more jobs, increase transport services, support green growth and increase the amount of affordable housing available to the poorest population, among others.
In order to fulfill the objectives established in the program, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, the WBG’s main arm), the International Finance Corporation (IFC, a WBG institution supporting the private sector) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA, a WBG body offering insurance against political risk to investors), will work together to accompany the country’s efforts to achieve the results included in the strategy.
Among these objectives is strengthening institutional capacity to support territorial development, as well as natural resource management in specific regions; improved access to and quality of education; enhanced monetary management to support fiscal consolidation; a more detailed financial intermediation for productive purposes; promotion of urban planning for the development of competitive cities; and an improved business and innovation climate to increase productivity.
Carlos Pinto, who is in charge of IFC operations in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, said that with this new program, “the IFC reiterates its commitment to reinforce the role of private investment in Colombia’s sustainable economic growth.” He added: “Inclusive growth requires the impulse of initiatives to promote job creation, efficient infrastructure and support for the diversification of the country’s productive sector.”
The program was prepared based on the Colombian government’s development priorities, a diagnosis drawn up by the WBG and a series of consultations and dialogues with government, private sector and civil society representatives.
Learn more about the work of the World Bank in Colombia: www.worldbank.org/co
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