Egypt, Japan Ink One Billion Grant to Support Health Sector

Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al-Mashat signed on Wednesday with Ambassador of Japan to Egypt Masaki Noke a Japanese grant worth one billion yen ($9.5 million), to support the health sector for the COVID-19 pandemic and the procurement of medical equipment.

The new grant comes within the current framework of strategic cooperation between Egypt and Japan, which prioritizes sectors that include energy, health, transport, tourism, and education to ensure that pandemic does not derail efforts in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Al-Mashat praised the strategic cooperation between Egypt and Japan, as well as the spirit of solidarity expressed by the Japanese government to support the health sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of signing the new grant today, she added that the cooperation portfolio between the two countries rises to $54.5 million in the fields of health and education.

Al-Mashat noted that the Ministry of International Cooperation seeks to, through the principles of economic diplomacy, strengthen the ‘Global Partnerships for Effective Development’.

[caption id="attachment_161887" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Current Portfolio of Japan in Egypt[/caption]

These principles include regularly organizing multi-stakeholder platforms to ensure that all projects between development partners are streamlined and effectively coordinated to accelerate the pace of development for the achievement of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); adopting a consistent Global Partnerships Narrative People&Projects&Purpose (P&P&P), and mapping ODA financing to SDGs for all projects with multilateral and bilateral development partners.

Earlier in April, Al-Mashat held a video conference meeting with more than 100 professionals representing development professionals and development organizations to discuss opportunities for deepening levels of cooperation to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

She presented a New Global Partnerships Narrative to ensure that all cooperation efforts should not derail development efforts from its intended purposes to achieve SDGs.

In September, the ministry, representatives of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA,) and the Japanese Embassy in Cairo organized a virtual high-level policy dialogue to deepen levels of cooperation for the year 2021/2022, where development projects will be implemented across several sectors in health, agriculture, aviation, electricity, transportation, and the environment as well as the promotion of knowledge exchange on science and technology.

Over $18.5 million of grants were dedicated to supporting the export of Japanese medical equipment as well as technical assistance to boost Egypt’s health sector and its capacity to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and Japan amounts to about $2.48 billion in 13 projects, $1.12 billion in funding for projects in the electricity and renewable energy sector, $552 million in the transport and navigation sector, $450 million in the tourism and antiquities sector, $137 million in the sector of higher education and scientific research, $168 million in the education and technical education sector, and $57 million in the irrigation sector.

All projects have targeted over several Sustainable Development Goals, mainly Goal 4 for quality education, Goal 7 for affordable and clean energy, Goal 11 for sustainable cities and communities and Goal 17 for partnerships for the goals.