MENA Transition FundEighth Steering Committee Meeting

December 7-8, 2015 (Cairo, Egypt)

Meeting Minutes

Key Decisions

1) Cash available on December 8, 2015 was $28.1 million, including funds from Japan, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US and investment income. The following projects were fully approved, to be funded with uncommitted cash, for a total of $20.6 million:

Egypt AfDB Building Capacity and Institutional Strengthening of the Ministry of International Cooperation for $4.455 million. Egypt will ensure this project becomes effective by April 15, 2016. Egypt also informed the Steering Committee of its commitment to address the issue of the following red-flagged projects by April 15, 2016 through either effectiveness or cancellation:

o Egypt AfDB Support to Parliaments: Capacity Building; o Egypt EIB Regional Integration through Trade and Transport Corridors; o Egypt EIB Logismed Soft Project; and o Egypt EIB Promoting Financial Inclusion via Mobile Financial Services

Tunisia WB Implementing Priority Public Actions to Enhance Competitiveness and Improve Public Services through an Innovative and Efficient Delivery Mechanism for $1.9 million. Tunisia informed the Steering Committee of its commitment to remove from the red-flagged list the following project:

o Tunisia AfDB Developing Leadership Capacity Project.

Jordan OECD Supporting SME Policy Effectiveness through Better Coordination, Consultation, Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms for $1.3 million.

Jordan OECD Support to Ongoing Decentralization Efforts by Promoting Good Governance and Open Government Policies and Practices with a focus on Municipalities for $1.95 million.

Jordan WB Economic Legislation Reform for $3.1 million

Morocco WB Strengthening Parliamentary Accountability and Oversight for $4 million.

Tunisia EIB Optimising and Monitoring Employment in Infrastructure Investments for $0.61 million.

Tunisia WB Broadband Internet and ICT for Education Acceleration Project for $3.3 million.

2) The SC also approved an additional financing request for the Tunisia IFC/OECD Set-up of an Investment Authority Project amounting to $0.35 million.

3) In lieu of the cancelled funds from the restructured Jordan and Morocco Promoting Financial Inclusion via Mobile Financial Services in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, additional financing requests were submitted and approved by the SC virtually as follows:

An additional financing request of $0.46 million for the Jordan Competitiveness and Investment Project was approved on August 20, 2015.

An additional financing request of $0.285 million for the Morocco Improving Connectivity in the Maghreb Project was approved on October 28, 2015.

4) The Tunisia AfDB Holistic Social Business Project was cancelled on October 14, 2015. The cancelled funds amounting to $2.46 million will remain allocated to Tunisia until such time a new submission is approved by the SC. Tunisia and the AfDB submitted a Work Readiness Project totaling $2.56 million to the Coordination Unit on December 4, 2016. The project will be submitted for technical review first ahead of submission to the SC for virtual consideration.

5) The SC agreed that the minimum threshold of $2 million set for projects requiring technical review by the independent roster of experts will be eliminated. Going forward, all projects will be subject to a technical review.

6) The SC also agreed that in future, a matrix of comments and responses will have to be prepared by ISAs to address comments in the technical reports submitted by the roster of experts.

7) Additional videos will be developed focusing on Egypt and Jordan. Both the Egypt Ministry of International Cooperation and the Jordan Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation have committed to securing filming permits as soon as possible.

8) The Donor and Transition Country co-Chairmanship has been handed over from Germany and Egypt to Japan and Morocco respectively.

9) The date of the next SC meeting will be announced by Japan and Morocco in due course after which a call for proposals will be issued.

Summary of Meeting

1) Opening Remarks

The eighth meeting of the Transition Fund SC took place in Cairo, Egypt on December 7 and 8, 2015. A list of meeting participants is presented in Annex 1. The meeting commenced with welcome remarks from Egypt. Dr. Christiane Bögemann-Hagedorn, Deputy Director General for North Africa, Middle East, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and Director for Latin America (BMZ), followed with opening remarks highlighting the historic challenges facing the region, the refugee crisis and the importance of continued support to Transition Countries (TCs). Germany also noted that this was the last SC meeting under its co-Chairmanship and outlined some of the key achievements accomplished including the extension of the fund by two years, the acquisition of additional funds and the increased focus on portfolio quality and reporting on tangible results (see Annex 2). The Executive Secretary of the Steering Committee (SC) introduced the agenda (enclosed in Annex 3).

2) Trustee Presentation

The Trustee presented the Transition Fund’s current funding status and outlook. The presentation is provided in Annex 4. Total pledges received at the time of the SC meeting amounted to $217.9 million. This includes a new contribution of $5 million received from the Netherlands. During the meeting, Germany announced a supplemental pledge of $10 million bringing the total pledges to $227.9 million.

Total cash contributions received to date amount to $215.9 million, including contributions of $4 million from Japan, $5 million from the Netherlands, $5 million from Saudi Arabia, $1 million from the UAE and $10 million from the US since the last meeting. Twelve countries have contributed the full amount of their pledges: Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, US and UK. Investment income earned to date amounts to $1 million, bringing the total funding to $216.9 million.

Funding decisions totaling $20.94 million have been taken as of December 8, 2015, for projects.

Current cash available, net of funding decisions, is $7.2 million.

The next cash payment of $1 million is expected from the UAE in June 2016 and $10 million from Germany’s supplemental contribution in January 2016. 3) Coordination Unit Presentation

The Executive Secretary gave a brief presentation outlining the nine projects that were submitted totaling $20.94 million and highlighting the importance of focusing on the quality of proposals submitted. The presentation is provided in Annex 5. The presentation outlined key highlights on the status of the Fund and portfolio-related progress issues mainly:

Overall disbursement status as of June 30, 2015 increased to 12% from 9% in December 2014; Additional funds leveraged to co-finance Transition Fund projects amounted to about $21.74

million; On average, as of December 2015, 74 percent of the portfolio was rated satisfactory; 19 percent

unsatisfactory; and 7 percent of the projects were not yet effective.

The Executive Secretary also indicated that the performance of the portfolio of the Transition Fund will be re-assessed very soon during the next progress update due late January/early February 2016.

4) IFI Coordination Platform Comments

The IFI Coordination Platform (IFI CP) indicated it has held several meetings on the sidelines of the Deauville Partnership (DP) meetings to ensure close coordination with the Chair of the DP as well as to ensure on-going dialogue with other DP members, including TCs. The IFI CP views the platform as a useful coordination and policy exchange forum to discuss ways to help address the region’s most pressing challenges and to adapt to the countries’ evolving needs. The IFI CP noted that TCs are increasingly facing security challenges and are affected by ongoing conflicts, either directly or indirectly. In this context, the IFI CP highlighted the need to increase support for investments to finance economic and social transformation in the region.

5) Future Funding Prospects

Germany noted that the Transition Fund is on a very good track in general and indicated that the SC has to keep the momentum going. It highlighted the importance of having TCs and Implementation Support Agencies (ISAs) stick to the reform agenda and encouraged other donors to bring in additional funds. Germany thanked the Netherlands for its contribution of $5 million and announced a supplemental pledge of $10 million to be delivered in 2016. The Netherlands indicated it stepped in because the Arab Spring is not dead and that the Transition Fund is helping TCs re-new themselves through institutional change. The meeting also noted that additional contributions of $12.1 million are needed for the US conditional contribution of $10 million to kick-in in order to bring the Fund to the initial capitalization level of $250 million. The US encouraged other donors to step in with new pledges to allow it to fulfill its final $10 million contribution. Other donors including France, Kuwait, Russia, and the UK noted the importance of highlighting success stories from the Transition Fund both qualitatively and quantitatively to mobilize additional funds and requested ISAs to inform their projects on the basis of donor short term concerns/expectations and long-term development needs.

Jordan indicated that Transition Fund support has been transformational on the ground and impacts from projects are starting to take shape. It noted that many countries in the region are facing tremendous challenges as a result of the Syria conflict and encouraged additional support. Egypt noted it is looking forward to $250 million capitalization and even beyond given that the Transition Fund has been extended by two years.

ISAs and the Coordination Unit (CU) indicated that the lack of funding has been a key bottleneck to adequate project preparation which has in return impacted project performance. The AfDB also noted that there have been many changes over the last four years. While some developments have been disappointing, there have been many positive developments in TCs. Changing minds, mindsets and structures (as said by Tunisia), is important and asked the SC to remember that most projects attempt to address complex organizational and institutional structures, which take time. EBRD stated that in view of non-availability of funds, project preparation has started slowing down and focus has been on the highest priority projects. It encouraged TCs to look at all the projects that have been put on hold due to lack of funding, noting demand for funding has often surpassed supply. The ISAs also thanked Germany for its upbeat and optimistic leadership and for its focus on portfolio quality aspects.

Noting the comments above, Germany requested all donors to discuss prospects for additional contributions with each donors’ relevant authorities and confirm new pledges where possible. Incoming co-Chair Japan also requested that a list of pipeline projects be prepared in order to incentivize additional contributions from donors.

6) Eighth Call Project Approvals

Eight projects, including one request for additional financing, totaling $20.94 million were approved by the SC. The list of projects submitted, including the full approved amounts, is provided in Annex 5. The following projects were approved:

Egypt AfDB Building Capacity and Institutional Strengthening of the Ministry of International Cooperation for $4.455 million. Egypt will ensure this project becomes effective by April 15,

2016. Egypt also informed the Steering Committee of its commitment to address the issue of the following red-flagged projects by April 15, 2016 through either effectiveness or cancellation:

o Egypt AfDB Support to Parliaments: Capacity Building; o Egypt EIB Regional Integration through Trade and Transport Corridors; o Egypt EIB Logismed Soft Project; and o Egypt EIB Promoting Financial Inclusion via Mobile Financial Services

Tunisia WB Implementing Priority Public Actions to Enhance Competitiveness and Improve Public Services through an Innovative and Efficient Delivery Mechanism for $1.9 million. Tunisia informed the Steering Committee of its commitment to remove from the red-flagged list the following project:

o Tunisia AfDB Developing Leadership Capacity Project.

Jordan OECD Supporting SME Policy Effectiveness through Better Coordination, Consultation, Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms for $1.3 million.

Jordan OECD Support to Ongoing Decentralization Efforts by Promoting Good Governance and Open Government Policies and Practices with a focus on Municipalities for $1.95 million.

Jordan WB Economic Legislation Reform for $3.1 million

Morocco WB Strengthening Parliamentary Accountability and Oversight for $4 million.

Tunisia EIB Optimising and Monitoring Employment in Infrastructure Investments for $0.61 million.

Tunisia WB Broadband Internet and ICT for Education Acceleration Project for $3.3 million.

The Tunisia IFC/OECD additional financing for the Set-up of an Investment Authority Project amounting to $0.35 million.

In lieu of the cancelled funds from the restructured Jordan and Morocco Promoting Financial Inclusion via Mobile Financial Services in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, additional financing requests were submitted and approved by the SC virtually as follows:

An additional financing request of $0.46 million for the Jordan Competitiveness and Investment Project was approved on August 20, 2015.

An additional financing request of $0.285 million for the Morocco Improving Connectivity in the Maghreb Project was approved on October 28, 2015.

The Tunisia AfDB Holistic Social Business Project was cancelled on October 14, 2015. The cancelled funds amounting to $2.46 million will remain allocated to Tunisia until such time a new submission is approved by the SC. Tunisia and the AfDB submitted a Work Readiness Project totaling $2.56 million to the Coordination Unit on December 4, 2016. The project will be submitted for technical review first ahead of submission to the SC for virtual consideration. The SC also noted the importance of ensuring that responses to comments from the roster of experts are documented in writing. It has therefore requested that in future a matrix of comments and

responses be submitted to the SC ahead of project deliverables and approval. The CU will communicate requirements in due course.

7) Project Implementation Progress

The CU gave a brief presentation on projects that were flagged as slow performing in the June 2014 progress update (see Annex 7). An update was requested from both the countries and ISAs on these projects to better assess implementation bottlenecks. Currently, 19 percent of the portfolio is rated MU/U. In order to ensure close monitoring and follow-up, the CU proposed and the SC agreed, that this be turned into a more structured exercise that would include specific timelines for deliverable of activities. Therefore, a section on specific actions and timeline for implementation will be introduced to the bi-annual progress reports to facilitate monitoring. The SC also noted that the challenging contexts in Libya and Yemen be taken into account when reflecting on individual project progress as both TCs and ISAs have little control over the often rapid and fluid changes on the ground. The SC suggested that progress on red-flagged projects should be taken into account when considering additional projects for approval. The SC expressed appreciation for the role of the German co-Chair and the CU in managing the Transition Fund and enhancing portfolio quality which many referred to as ‘best practice’ among other similar Financial Intermediary Funds.

Below is a brief re-cap of actions committed to be undertaken by TC/ISA commitment to advancing those projects (not including projects in Libya and Yemen) on the red-flag list:

Tunisia and AfDB committed to disbursing more than 10% of the funds allocated to the Developing Leadership Capacity Project as soon as possible;

Egypt and AfDB agreed that if the Support to Parliament: Building Capacity Project was not effective by April 15, 2016, the project will be cancelled;

Egypt and EIB agreed that three of their projects namely Promoting Financial Inclusion via Mobile Financial Services in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, Logismed Soft Project, and Regional Integration through Trade and Transport Corridors will be cancelled if the projects are not declared effective (mainly through the signing of the Cooperation Agreements) by April 15, 2016.

The Jordan IFC Integrated Inspection Management System Project indicated contract signing with the IT vendor is expected to take place before the end of December 2015 after which disbursements will kick-in.

OFID confirmed that a first tranche of disbursement ($0.5 million) was processed for the Tunisia Energy Reform Plan. It also indicated that the TORs for the consortium are now available and need to be validated by the project’s steering committee.

Jordan WB National Unified Registry Project has undergone a mid-term review and restructuring is under consideration. The objectives, implementation performance, financing requirements, and changes to project scope/design will be assessed for restructuring with the decision communicated to the SC in due course.

The Morocco WB Strengthening Micro-Entrepreneurship for Disadvantaged Youth noted substantial improvement has been made on project management and related fiduciary aspects. By the end of 2015, it is expected that disbursements will nearly triple and progress on key indicators will improve at which time project ratings will also be upgraded.

8) Other Items including Date of Next SC Meeting and Closing Remarks

The Egyptian and German co-Chairs closed the meeting by thanking all members of the SC for a very productive year during which much has been achieved (see closing remarks in Annex 8). Germany announced it was handing over co-Chairmanship of the Transition Fund to Japan who is also assuming Chairmanship of the Deauville Partnership and Egypt announced it was handing over co-Chairmanship to Morocco. IFIs were requested to volunteer for the role of the IFI Coordination Platform as EIB’s tenure comes to a close.

The date of the next SC meeting will be announced by Japan and Morocco in due course after which a call for proposals will be issued.

Japan noted that the next Senior Officials Meeting will take place on March 2, 2016 in Tokyo jointly organized by the governance and finance tracks. It also indicated that the three key priorities would be: (i) social stabilization and democracy; (ii) women’s participation in social and economic activities; and (iii) SMEs support. Morocco indicated it would be pleased to host the next SC meeting in Morocco once the dates of the meeting have been set.

Annex 1: List of Attendees

Country/IFI Participants Country/IFI ParticipantsCANADA Sean Boyd UK Carl Aaron

Lisanne Garceau-Bednar Andrew Mackowski DENMARK Jacob Faber US Elizabeth ShortinoEGYPT Sahar Nasr Ania Canavan

Ramy Afifi, AfDB Jacob Kolster

Shehab Marzban Prajesh BakhtaMahitab Magdy Yasmine Eita

FRANCE Fabien Gonguet TBDGERMANY Christiane Bögemann-Hagedorn EBRD Hildegard Gacek

Niels Schuett Adrian KelerAnnalena Edler Reem El Saady

Esther Griffies WeldJAPAN EIB Tim winters Mr. Naoaki InayoshiJORDAN Saleh Al-Kharabsheh

Nasser Al Zubi IFC Raffaele BoldracchiHana Uraidi IsDB Amadou Diallo

KUWAIT Ishaq Abdulkarim Khalid HilalEman Al-Haddad OECD Andreas Schaal

MOROCCO Mohamed El Gholabzouri Florian Theus Chafik Rachadi Alessandro Bellantoni

Abdeltif Berrahou Jorge Galvez MendezNETHERLANDS Frank Keurhorst OFID Mahmoud KheneRUSSIA Pavel Evseev WORLD BANK Ayat SolimanSAUDI ARABIA Musaad Almogrin IFI

Coordination Platform

Joyce Liyan

Turkey Al-Turkey Trustee Darius StanguTUNISIA Kalthoum Hamzaoui Coordination

UnitFranck Bousquet

Najoua Khraief Hayat Al-Harazi

Annex 2: German co-Chair Opening Remarks

Dear Steering Committee Members,Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all on behalf of the German Co-Chairmanship of the Transition Fund to this Steering Committee meeting in Cairo. Let me first thank our Egyptian Co-Chairs and especially Her Excellency, Minister Nasr, and her team from the Ministry of International Cooperation for so generously hosting another Transition Fund Steering Committee meeting here.

In my view, it is extremely important to hold meetings on such an initiative in the beneficiary countries themselves, and in this respect we are all very grateful to Egypt especially as you have been extending your co-chairmanship to a second year due to reasons that we all know very well and that continue to concern us a lot.

This is the second and last Steering Committee meeting under German G7 presidency and, subsequently, Transition Fund Co-Chairmanship. And thus this is also an opportunity for me to take a look back and to briefly appreciate our joint achievements during this year. I think it is justified to say that it has altogether been a quite successful year for the Fund.

We have managed to extend the Fund by two more years. This underlines our commitment to the Deauville Partnership especially as the region is facing very challenging times. A commitment that was once more confirmed during this year’s G7 summit in Elmau where G7 leaders stressed that continued support for Arab countries in transition remains a top priority for the years to come.

The extension also allows more time for countries and implementing agencies to come forward with project proposals as well as for donors to fulfil pledges and make new contributions. I would like to add that the outlook on the funding situation is far more encouraging than it was in the beginning of 2015. We are on a good path to reaching the capitalization goal.

During our meeting in May, we also approved a set of very relevant projects, and I am looking forward to discussing very promising new proposals later in the course of this meeting.

And last but not least we have seen the introduction of a stronger results-oriented mechanism – the “red-flagged projects” exercise – which has given important impulses for a number of projects to overcome administrative bottlenecks or implementation difficulties.

I am also very happy to see a more coherent approach between the Transition Fund and the other pillars of the Deauville Partnership, namely the Finance Track, with its focus on the issues of financial inclusion and job creation. As most of you know, we held two very successful conferences earlier this year in Berlin on both issues. These issues are of paramount importance for a successful socio-economic transition and are being reflected in the design of a number of Transition Fund projects approved this year.

However, the main purpose of this meeting is not to look back, but to look ahead and discuss new project proposals, but also the overall future perspectives of the Transition Fund. And needless to say, the remaining challenges in this regard are huge.

The various and often interlinked crises in the region are affecting more and more MENA countries, including but not limited to the Arab Countries in Transition (ACTs) identified as partners of the Deauville Partnership. This includes direct involvement in armed conflict, being host countries for refugees from other countries, dealing with worsening security situation or with continued economic deprivation. And as you will be aware, we also have to deal with the effects of these crises back home in Europe in a historically unprecedented way.

We will discuss the implications of these challenges for the future of the Transition Fund in more detail later today, but let me at this point already make a very clear statement in this regard: I remain convinced that, while immediate crisis response is important and we are well aware that new approaches are needed to tackle new challenges, we will still need the Transition Fund as an instrument of support for longer-term structural change now more than ever.

And I am sure that when we continue to jointly engage for enlarging the financial basis, identifying the right projects, and monitoring their progress, we can make a difference for the partner countries, even though the results may only show in the medium- and not in the short term. In this spirit, I look forward to fruitful discussions and presentations during the next two days.

Once again, let me thank you all for your continued commitment and support for the Deauville Partnership Transition Fund and the great cooperation during our Co-Chairmanship.

Annex 3: Agenda

Day 1: December 7th

Session 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

1. Welcome by Co-Chairs (Egypt and Germany)

2. Opening remarks by Egypt (H.E. Ms. Sahar Nasr, Minister of International Cooperation)

3. Introduction and adoption of the agenda (Executive Secretary)

4. Update by the Trustee (Trustee)

5. Update by Coordination Unit (Coordination Unit)

6. Video Presentation of Transition Fund Projects (Coordination Unit)

7. Comments on the operation of the Transition Fund to date (IFI Coordination Platform Secretariat, on behalf of ISAs)

8. Discussion on Future Funding Prospects and outlook on the future of the TF (Germany)

Welcome Coffee 8:30 am – 9:00 am

Lunch 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Session 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

9. Presentation of new project proposals by transition countries (with any needed information from ISAs) Q&A, Discussion of proposals and Assessment rounds

Coffee 3:30 pm – 3:45 pm

Session 3:45 pm – 6:00 pm

10. Presentation of new project proposals by transition countries (with any needed information from ISAs) Q&A, Discussion of proposals and Assessment rounds

6:30 Reception, Hosted by the German Co-chair, Le Pacha 1901, Saray El Gezirah Str., Zamalek

A direct shuttle from the MoIC to the dinner venue will be provided for all SCM participants

Day 2: December 8th

Welcome Coffee Coffee 8:30 am – 9:00 am 8:30 am – 9:00 am

Session 09:00 am – 12:30 pm

10. Wrap-up and final funding decision on prescreened proposals

11. Discussion on project implementation and progress (introduction by Coordination Unit, followed by project-specific information from TCs, with ISA input where requested)

12. Any other business, including date of next Call for Proposals

13. Handover of Donor and Country Co-Chairmanship

14. Recap of decisions made (Executive Secretary)

15. Conclusion by Co-Chairs

Lunch 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm after which Meeting Ends

Annex 4: Trustee Presentation

Annex 5: Coordination Unit Presentation

Annex 6: List of Project Submissions and Decisions

Country # Project Name Direct Costs Indirect Costs Total Funding

Requested TC-

Executed ISA

Name AmountISA

Name AmountISA-

Executed TotalISA

Name AmountISA

Name Amount Total

Egypt 1Building Capacity and Institutional Strengthening of the Ministry of International Cooperation

4,385,000 - 4,385,000 AfDB 70,000 70,000 4,455,000

Egypt Total 1 4,385,000 - 4,385,000 70,000 4,455,000

Jordan

1

Supporting Jordan to improve SME policy effectiveness through better coordination, consultation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms

- OECD 1,220,500 1,220,500 1,220,500 OECD 77,000 77,000 1,297,500

2

Support Jordan’s ongoing decentralisation efforts by promoting good governance and open government policies and practices with a focus on municipalities

- OECD 1,827,150 1,827,150 1,827,150 OECD 122,850 122,850 1,950,000

3 Jordan Economic Legislation Reform - WB 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 WB 100,000 100,000 3,100,000

Jordan Total 3 - 6,047,650 6,047,650 299,850 6,347,500

Morocco 1 Strengthening Parliamentary Accountability and Oversight - WB 3,500,00

0 3,500,000 3,500,000 WB 500,000 500,000 4,000,000

Morocco Total 1 - 3,500,000 3,500,000 500,000 4,000,000

Tunisia

1Optimising and Monitoring Employment in Infrastructure Investments

- EIB 569,500 569,500 569,500 EIB 40,000 40,000 609,500

2 Broadband Internet and ICT for Education Acceleration Project - WB 3,225,00

0 3,225,000 3,225,000 WB 60,750 60,750 3,285,750

3

Implementing priority public actions to enhance competitiveness and improve public services through an innovative and efficient delivery mechanism.

- WB 1,730,000 1,730,000 1,730,000 WB 158,900 158,900 1,888,900

4 Additional Financing: Establishment of a Tunisia Investment Authority - IFC 350,000 OECD - 350,000 350,000 WB - OECD - - 350,000

Tunisia Total 4 - 5,874,500 5,874,500 259,650 6,134,150

GRAND TOTAL 9 4,385,000 15,422,150 19,807,150

1,129,500 20,936,650

Annex 7: Project Implementation Progress

Annex 8: Closing Remarks

Egypt co-Chair Closing Remarks

We were glad to have the Co-Chairmanship with Canada and we succeeded together to secure about US$ 30 million for the Fund’s projects.

Egypt Co-Chaired again for one additional year with Germany. This interim year witnessed a critical time in the Fund’s life and Egypt with its German Co-Chair colleagues succeeded to extend the life of the fund for two more years and succeeded to allocate more than US$ 40 million.

Egypt is looking forward for more Funds to come under the new Co-Chairmanship of Japan and Morocco.

Egypt announced that from its side will open a new channels for Fund raising, especially with Italy, Sweden and Norway.

Egypt highlighted that it’s a must to secure more Funds for Libya and Yemen to ensure that “No One is Left Behind”.

Egypt expressed its wishes to target the US$ 250 million and even behind in the light of the Fund life extension for more two years.

Egypt believes that MENA Transition Fund is a unique platform that includes G7 Countries, Arab Gulf States, Donor Countries, more than 10 different IFIs and Six Arab Countries in Transition all in one mechanism.

Germany co-Chair Closing Remarks

Germany thanked the Egyptian co-chair and the Coordination Unit for the excellent cooperation during the past year.

Germany is pleased that that together with all Steering Committee members, considerable progress was made in the past months regarding the question of monitoring. A mechanism has now been established that allows for a pragmatic and efficient monitoring by the steering committee. Germany thanked ISA and countries for their readiness to engage in such an open and trustful dialogue in this respect.

Germany is pleased that first results begin to show on the ground and supports stronger communication in this regard in the future.

Germany is convinced that the initial capitalization goal of USD 250 million can be reached. This is a positive perspective that was not necessarily that clear at the beginning of the German-Egyptian Co-chairmanship.

Germany gratefully welcomes that the Netherlands are now on board and significantly contributing to the Transition Fund. This is a very important and encouraging sign of support.

Germany once more confirms the announced contribution of additional 10 Million USD for 2016.

The approval of promising new projects in 2015 and the new financial contributions confirm the Transition Fund to be a much needed instrument for longer-term stabilization and structural change.

Germany stands ready to support the incoming co-chairs, Japan and Morocco, and wishes them best of luck for their chairmanship.