WFP, Spain Launch 1stTime Partnership to Enhance Access to Education, Food Security in Upper Egypt

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) have launched a first-time partnership to support Egypt’s national school feeding programme. With a focus on school-based support and cash assistance, the collaboration aims to improve food security and nutrition for students, teachers, and families among Egypt’s most vulnerable communities in Assiut governorate in Upper Egypt.

With a contribution of EUR 650,000 from the Spanish Cooperation, WFP will support about 4,100 community school students and their family members through school feeding, conditional cash assistance, and awareness-raising sessions.

Over the course of the two-year programme, students will receive daily fortified in-school snacks in the form of date bars, securing 25% of their daily caloric needs. As part of the national safety net “Takaful and Karama”, students’ families will also receive monthly cash transfers, conditional on their child achieving an 80% school attendance rate. This initiative helps incentivize education and improve families’ ability to secure their basic needs, while helping reduce school dropout rates, child labour and early marriage among girls.

Additionally, the supported community schools will serve as hubs for awareness-raising activities focused on social and behavioural change, promoting healthy nutrition, gender equality, and inclusion among students, parents, and the wider community.

To mark the launch of the programme, WFP Egypt Representative and Country Director, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, Spanish Ambassador to Egypt, Álvaro Iranzo, and Head of the Spanish Cooperation in Egypt, Eva Suárez, visited one of the participating community schools in Assiut. They engaged with students, families, and teachers to discuss the programme’s activities and met with women and youth who have benefitted from the proven success of WFP’s already ongoing vocational training programme.

“We are thrilled to launch this first-time partnership with the Spanish Cooperation complementing Egypt’s national school feeding programme. As the world continues to face socio-economic challenges, this collaboration not only invests in children’s education and nutrition, but it provides an essential safety net for vulnerable families. By alleviating financial pressures and promoting consistent school attendance, we are helping communities build resilience and improve their food security,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP Egypt Representative and Country Director.

“In partnership with Spain and the Egyptian government, we are addressing immediate needs while also laying long-term stability and opportunities for children and their families,” added de Margerie.

“Spain is committed to leaving no one behind in a situation of vulnerability, through all instruments and the collaboration of all cooperation actors, including international development and humanitarian agencies, with WFP being one of the actors that receives regular and established contributions from our government,” said Álvaro Iranzo, Spanish Ambassador to Egypt.

“We hope that this project, which is inaugurated today, will lay the foundations for a fruitful cooperation between Spanish Cooperation and WFP in Egypt to jointly contribute to the achievement of SDG 4: Equitable, inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning, and SDG 2: Food security and the fight against hunger, in order to achieve sustainable human development worldwide,” added Iranzo.

“This project, which is being inaugurated today, is the first one funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) for the World Food Programme in Egypt, with a budget of €650,000 to achieve "Improvement in access to education and nutrition through sustainable interventions in schools and cash transfers to help students, teachers, and households in vulnerable situations," said Eva Suárez, Head of the Spanish Cooperation in Egypt.

“It is highly appreciated that the project is being carried out in the province of Assiut, given its geographical dimensions, as well as its difficulties in achieving good access to education and full food security. Therefore, we consider that the selection of this location is very favourable to ensure that no one is left behind and to increase human development in all provinces of Egypt,” added Suarez.

This new partnership builds on WFP’s ongoing programmes—ranging from nutrition and support for refugees and migrants to the empowerment of women and youth, as well as rural development—benefiting over 830,000 people in 2024 alone.