The Ministry of International Cooperation and the European Union (EU) signed on a number of development financing agreements worth €138m.
The new agreements are within the framework of the Egyptian-European partnership; supporting Egypt’s development efforts in various sectors, namely rural and community development, administrative reform, local development, environment, and health.
The agreements included a €24m grant from the EU’s Integrated Rural Development programme and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to support Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. A €5 grant will also be directed to the Public Financial Management project with the Ministry of Finance. More €5 will go to the Sustainable Development Strategy and the Administrative Reform Plan to support the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, and the Central Agency for Organisation Administration (CAOA), within the framework of “EU Support to Enhanced Administrative and Public Economic Governance in Egypt” programme, which will be implemented through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
An agreement for launching the “Decentralization and Integrated Local Development with a Special Emphasis on Upper Egypt” project was also signed, worth €7m in grants, within the framework of “EU Support to Enhanced Administrative and Public Economic Governance in Egypt”, which will be implemented through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in support of the Ministry of Local Development. A €14m grant for the “EU Green – EU Support for Growth through Egyptian Environmental Networks” programme was also signed, and will be implemented through the GIZ, to support the Ministry of Environment.
This is in addition to a €3m grant for the Community Development Program between the EU and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA). Moreover, the disbursement of the second tranche was announced to support the budget, worth €80m in grants to support the Ministry of Health and Population.
