Egypt, WFP to Empower Women Entrepreneurs, Promote Farming Techniques 

On Sunday, the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al Mashat, inspected a number of ongoing and new development programmes in Luxor, which are being implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP).

The Minister was accompanied by the Governor of Luxor, WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Egypt as well as a delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.

Al Mashat noted that the projects come within the ministry’s ‘Global Partnerships Narrative’ focused on three main pillars: people at the core, projects in action, and purpose as the driver, in order to streamline all development efforts under one umbrella and create mindful mobilization.

Al Mashat also met with farmers in El Boghdadi Village, where the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) and WFP have been helping smallholders to minimize their crop losses and provide technical support as well as loans for women to finance off-farm activities such as animal keeping and agro-processing.

"Listening to the stories told by the farmers and women entrepreneurs manifests the real human impact these programs are achieving. Concerted efforts are needed to push forward with the United Nations SDGs, with the sustainable development of agriculture being a center pillar in this endeavor. Together with WFP, we are focusing on ensuring food security going into the future and empowering communities to build for a resilient and green economy,” the Egyptian minister said.

Al-Mashat also listened to the experiences of young women and girls enrolled in the 'She Can Initiative', a joint program between the Ministry of Social Solidarity and WFP, where they are trained on entrepreneurship and are provided with concessional micro-loans to start their own income generating projects and encourage families to continue supporting their children’s education.

“We are proud to have been a strong partner of the Government of Egypt in implementing programmes that are aligned with the Country’s 2030 Vision. As a result of this solid collaboration, we are able to scale up successful integrated development models to assist more communities in need, especially at such difficult times resulting from the COVID-19 crisis where more and more people are becoming vulnerable, “said WFP Representative and Country Director in Egypt, Menghestab Haile.

The Minister of International Cooperation has been applying the principles of economic diplomacy to strengthen economic cooperation between Egypt and its development partners. 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).

In collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Egypt has been implementing several projects across different fields which have assisted millions of people since 1968.