OUAGADOUGOU, May 26, 2021- Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, will start tomorrow his first official trip since assuming his current position in July 2020. Starting on May 27 until June 3, 2021, he will tour Burkina Faso and Niger.
The World Bank is committed to supporting a resilient recovery for the Sahel region based on an integrated approach in the context of the Sahel Alliance. The region is a top priority for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank fund for the world’s poorest countries. The aim of this initiative is to strengthen and coordinate the development and stabilization efforts of the G5 Sahel countries. Financial support will be reinforced thanks to an unprecedented increase in IDA resources being made available to this region, which now stand at $8.5 billion.
Mr. Diagana will be accompanied by Mr. Sergio Pimenta, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the Middle East and Africa. The delegation will make its first stop in Burkina Faso, where Mr. Diagana will inform the authorities of the World Bank’s interest in increasing its support for the country’s economic and social development efforts. He will also meet with development partners, representatives of civil society organizations, and students from the Lycée Scientifique de Ouagadougou.
The delegation will then continue on to Niger, where Mr. Diagana will meet with senior government authorities, development partners, a group of legislators, and civil society leaders. In order to see the progress made by some of the projects financed by the World Bank in the country, the delegation will visit an agricultural training center and attend the launch of the Niger Learning Improvement for Results in Education (LIRE) Project.
This visit follows the recent finalization of the World Bank Group Strategy for West and Central Africa, whose four objectives focus on establishing a new social contract between citizens and the State, creating more and better jobs, strengthening the region’s human capital, and building climate resilience.
