The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
By Julius Businge
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors have discussed and endorsed the progress report of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Uganda that will guide the support of the World Bank Group to the country for the remaining two years (2014-2015) of the CAS.
The CAS is a key document that sets out the framework of cooperation between the World Bank Group and the Government of Uganda, and describes the Bank Group’s planned program in the country.
The bank announced this development in a media note dated Aug.2.
“This Progress Report shows that the objectives of the joint World Bank Group’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for the period FY11-15 remain relevant,” said Philippe Dongier, the Bank’s Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi.
He added that the report proposes a significant adjustment to the lending instruments in order to maximize the impact of the Bank’s interventions. He said the assessment of the progress against CAS outcomes shows a mixed performance to-date with diminishing returns under the Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) series, which has been under implementation for more than a decade.
“The Progress Report confirms that the CAS outcomes could be achieved provided the Bank adjusts its lending instrument mix and the Government of Uganda makes progress on two fronts—accelerating implementation and advancing governance reforms,” Dongier added.
The progress report of CAS continues to be aligned with the Uganda Government’s 2010-2015 National Development Plan (NDP), which sets an ambitious reform agenda to increase growth, employment and socio-economic transformation for prosperity to accelerate socio-economic transformation to achieve the National Vision of a transformed Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years, while focusing on governance and reducing corruption to foster the country’s economic and social development.
Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye, the World Bank’s country manager said over the remaining two years the Bank’s support to Uganda will be focused on the transformational operations and related investments, selective development policy lending instrument in exceptional cases to support governance or sectoral reforms and support Uganda’s governance efforts.
