WASHINGTON, April 7, 2026 - The World Bank Group has supported new Country Partnership Frameworks (CPF) with Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger for the 2026-2031 period. These frameworks aim to stimulate job creation, especially for youth and women, by strengthening human capital, infrastructure, and agricultural productivity, while supporting targeted reforms and private sector development. Grounded in the Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) Strategy, and based on flexible engagement tailored to each country context, CPFs respond to common challenges in the Sahel while leveraging cross-border opportunities.
This first-of-its-kind partnership strengthens collaboration between the four Sahel countries and the World Bank Group through an integrated One World Bank Group approach. It leverages the complementary strengths of the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) to expand access to finance for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), strengthen supply chains, and create more and better jobs.
"The CPFs will put people at the center of the action, support the key levers to accelerate growth and progress, and strengthen cross-border integration to promote balanced development in the Sahel," said Clara de Sousa, World Bank Group Division Director for Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger. "They will target sectors with high employment potential, support regional programs and high-impact cross-border projects. Supporting the World Bank Group's key initiatives in health (Universal Health Coverage), electricity (Mission 300), and agriculture (Agriconnect), they support the vision of a peaceful and reconciled Sahel, offering sustainable economic opportunities to the millions of young Sahelians."
The new CPFs are closely aligned with the national development priorities of the Central Sahel countries: Niger's Programme de refondation de la République (PRR), Chad's Plan national de développement Tchad Connexion 2030, Mali's Stratégie nationale pour l'émergence et le développement durable (SNEDD 2024-2033), as well as Burkina Faso's Plan national de développement (PND) 2026-2030 - RELANCE. These CPFs emphasize strengthening governance, economic diversification, and accelerating inclusive and resilient private sector-led growth. CPFs are results-oriented and aim to address the root causes of fragility, conflict, and violence, including by improving access to essential social services and fostering better economic opportunities, with particular attention to vulnerable populations, including refugees and internally displaced persons.
"A strong and innovative private sector is key to attracting investment, raising productivity, creating jobs, and building economic resilience to exogenous and endogenous shocks," said Olivier Buyoya, IFC Division Director for West Africa "particularly in energy and agribusiness, is key to converting the region's economic potential into tangible socio-economic progress."
In a constraining context of the Central Sahel, marked by insecurity, landlockedness, governance challenges, and obstacles to investment, "MIGA intends to play a key role by capitalizing on the entry points created by the interventions of IDA and IFC as well as by the operationalization of the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, while maintaining close collaboration with active investors to sustainably support investment flows to MSMEs," said Muhamet Bamba Fall, Director of Industries, MIGA.
