The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today discussed a new four-year (2012-2016) Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Gabon, focused on adopting the transfomational changes and reforms Gabon needs to lay the foundation for job-creating, long-term economic growth.

 

Renewing infrastructure and basic services; promoting agriculture and job creation especially for unemployed youth; tackling urban poverty; and increasing opportunities for girls and women are some of the other cross-cutting objectives of the CPS.

 

More than 75 percent of Gabon’s estimated 1.5 million inhabitants live in urban areas. The population is young, with 50 percent under 19 years of age.

 

“The support that has been discussed is in line with the World Bank’s Strategy for Africa, which pays special attention to the urgent need for job creation, good governance, and a high performing public sector. It also integrates and is inspired by the priorities laid out in the Gabon’s strategic development program,” said Zouera Youssoufou, the World Bank Country Manager for Gabon.

The US$250 million in World Bank funding for Gabon during the four-year period will notably support critical reforms in public financial management and key economic sectors.

 

It will more specifically seek to improve development outcomes in six areas: (i) improving governance; (ii) improving efficiencies and transparency in the management of the budget;(iii) improving the country’s management of its debt and its mining resources; (IV) improving the investment climate and supporting the growth of the private sector; (v) ensuring the adoption of a long-term plan for the transparent management of the country’s natural resources;(vi) and the production of an in-depth analysis (study) of the country’s social safety net and its health system.

 

Gabon is a resource-rich country and the fifth largest oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is well endowed with arable land, forest, and mineral resources, has extraordinary biodiversity, as well as rich deposits of magnesium and iron ore.

 

Forty years after the start of oil exploration, Gabon remains largely dependent on oil. On average over the last five years, the oil sector has accounted for 80 percent of exports, 45 percent of GDP, and 60 percent of the budget revenue.

 

A middle-income country, Gabon has been a member of the World Bank since 1963. Since then, the World Bank has funded some 20 projects in the country. In March 2011, the value of the World Bank’s portfolio was an estimated US$51 millions, invested in five ongoing or active projects.

As previously announced on March 23, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank will conduct interviews with the three candidates in Washington, D.C. The schedule of interviews has been agreed with the candidates based on their availability:

 

• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Monday, April 9
• José Antonio Ocampo on Tuesday, April 10
• Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday, April 11

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved an International Development Association (IDA*) \interest free credit of US$30 million to kick-start a new Public Private Partnership (PPP) centered on infrastructure development in Ghana, the multilateral institution announced today.

 Bank support is the first phase in a series set to close a critical funding gap and to leverage urgently needed private sector investment from 2012-2016.

 The Republic of Ghana’s PPP program with the World Bank will combine the skills and resources of both the public and private sectors.  For its part, the Government will benefit from the expertise of the private sector by making it easier for authorities to focus instead on policy, planning and regulation.  Meanwhile, private firms will take care of day-to-day operations of various tasks, allowing both the private and public sectors to better coordinate while working more efficiently.

 Specifically, phase one of the Public Private Partnership project for the Republic of Ghana seeks to improve the legislative, institutional, financial, fiduciary and technical framework to generate a pipeline of bankable PPP projects.

 

(CNN) -- Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade called rival Macky Sall to concede Sunday's runoff election, which Sall hailed as a "victory of the Senegalese people," state media reported.

The 85-year-old Wade faced off against his former prime minister and protege after he failed to win a majority during last month's controversial election. The two survived a field of 14 candidates during the February 27 election, with Wade receiving 32% of the vote and Sall getting 25%.

Sall garnered support from several of the failed candidates, who vowed solidarity against Wade as he sought a third term.

Sunday night, Sall's supporters gathered at the candidate's headquarters in Dakar, cheering and dancing to hip-hop songs in the streets.

"We want change because Senegal is poor and Abdoulaye Wade has done nothing," said Alpha Ba, 18, who voted for Sall. "Today we are proud to be Senegalese."

With 5.3 million voters registered in the country, early turnout was heavy with large crowds waiting to vote in the capital city.

Earlier in the day, the head of the European Union Observer team, Thijs Berman, said voting was going well and there were no signs of fraud.

In the first round of voting last month, Wade was booed by much of one crowd at a polling place in Dakar.

There were unconfirmed reports that he arranged for supporters to come cheer for him and intimidate opponents Sunday. Local radio reported the supporters were dispersed with tear gas when they attempted to enter the polling place.

"In the first round, the voters here spontaneously booed him and it hurt him," said voter Malick Sy. "They took it upon themselves to mobilize people who don't have anything to do with this polling place to come and defend him, basically. I don't think it is a good image for Senegalese democracy."

However, the incident was thought to be isolated in an otherwise peaceful day of voting.

"Before the first round, there was huge political tension and even casualties," Berman said. In the second round, "the situation is much calmer," he said. "There is still a lot of political tension but there has hardly been any violence."

Senegal, a small country on Africa's west coast, has been an outpost of democratic stability in a region with a history of electoral chaos, civil wars and coups. But deadly demonstrations broke out after the country's highest court cleared Wade to seek a third term in January, and protesters demanded that Wade give up his bid for a new mandate.

Opponents argue that the court was compromised and the constitution limits presidents to two terms. But Wade successfully argued that he is exempt because he took office in 2000, before the term limit was put in place.

Wade once was hailed as a visionary, but his popularity has plummeted. Protesters calling for Wade's ouster have clashed on the streets in recent months.

A presidential spokesman has accused opposition candidates and their supporters of fueling "urban guerrilla warfare" leading up to the February vote. But Wade's opponents blamed police for the escalating violence, saying they were responsible for some deaths during demonstrations in Dakar and Rufisque.