GW-Economic Governance Reform Grant III (EGRG 3)

closed

The main development objectives of the Third Economic Governance Reform Grant (EGRG) Program for Guinea-Bissau are to: (i) promote efficiency, transparency and accountability in the use of public resources through improved public financial management (PFM); and (ii) improve specific aspects of the investment climate, including streamlined procedures for business registration and licensing, enhanced legal and taxation frameworks to foster private investment and new regulation to support environmental sustainability in public and private investment projects. The operation is designed to assist the Government of Guinea-Bissau in completing the first steps in a long term process of financial and management reform that was initiated in 2009. Recognizing the challenges posed by a difficult economic and political context and a fragile institutional environment, the project will support the completion of significant reforms in key areas of public administration and private sector development. While modest in their development objectives, such improvements will be instrumental in enabling the government to meet the larger objectives of reducing poverty and achieving levels of economic growth comparable to those of other countries in the region. Guinea-Bissau has made considerable progress in realigning its macroeconomic policy with its long-term development goals by implementing a focused agenda of complementary reforms supported by the two previous EGRGs. Despite encouraging progress in recent years on the economic and institutional fronts, Guinea-Bissau continues to face extraordinary short- and medium-term development challenges typical of a fragile state.