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  • Tuesday, 22 February 2022

The Minister of International Cooperation, World Food Programme Stress Importance of South-South Cooperation in Promoting Food Security and Human Capital Development

Minister Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat: The Luxor Center Innovation and Knowledge Sharing Platform offers a complementary path to revitalize South-South Cooperation

The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat held a meeting with Praveen Agrawal, Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt, to strengthen cooperation in food security and sustainable food systems. This comes within the country-led engagement framework held by the Ministry of International Cooperation with multilateral and bilateral development partners to periodically follow up on the progress of ongoing partnerships and strategies, which is in line with presidential directives to optimize the value of development cooperation along two dimensions: social-environmental and financial-economic through bolstering Egypt’s economic and sustainable development, enhancing role of the private sector, as well as improving infrastructure and investing in human capital through the “Decent Life” initiative.

The meeting discussed pathways to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger, by expanding and strengthening the Government’s school meals programme, working to enhance community resilience and ensure food security.

For her part, Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, underlined the value of the school meals programme, which is part of the state’s priorities, and receives greater attention from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and continuous follow-up by the Prime Minister, and also falls under the “Decent Life” initiative to develop rural areas in Egypt. She added that the presidential initiative, A Decent Life, is one of the largest development projects to be ever implemented in the history of Egypt, which is focused on improving the lives of citizens in more than 4,500 villages in 20 governorates, representing 58% of the Egyptian population. In the current context, mutual learning and spurring knowledge exchange has become a key ingredient in achieving sustainable development. South-South and technical cooperation has also been emphasized as a transformative development cooperation modality, which builds on the strengths of diverse development partners to implement innovative solutions. Reflecting this context, the Minister of International Cooperation expressed goals to transform the Luxor Center for Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, which is implemented in cooperation with the WFP, into a regional African hub for technical and knowledge exchange in food security among developing countries. For his part, Praveen Agrawal, WFP Country Director in Egypt, praised the ongoing and strategic partnership with Egypt and the pivotal role the Ministry of International Cooperation plays to coordinate relevant authorities to accelerate development. He added that partnership successes in Egypt throughout the 2018-2022 partnership framework reached a total of $240 million. The current portfolio between Egypt and the World Food Program amounts to $586 million in a variety of sectors, the most important of which is the development of rural Egypt, where there are currently projects implemented in 63 villages in 5 governorates.

The meeting discussed pathways to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger, by expanding and strengthening the Government’s school meals programme, working to enhance community resilience and ensure food security.

For her part, Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, underlined the value of the school meals programme, which is part of the state’s priorities, and receives greater attention from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and continuous follow-up by the Prime Minister, and also falls under the “Decent Life” initiative to develop rural areas in Egypt. She added that the presidential initiative, A Decent Life, is one of the largest development projects to be ever implemented in the history of Egypt, which is focused on improving the lives of citizens in more than 4,500 villages in 20 governorates, representing 58% of the Egyptian population. In the current context, mutual learning and spurring knowledge exchange has become a key ingredient in achieving sustainable development. South-South and technical cooperation has also been emphasized as a transformative development cooperation modality, which builds on the strengths of diverse development partners to implement innovative solutions. Reflecting this context, the Minister of International Cooperation expressed goals to transform the Luxor Center for Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, which is implemented in cooperation with the WFP, into a regional African hub for technical and knowledge exchange in food security among developing countries. For his part, Praveen Agrawal, WFP Country Director in Egypt, praised the ongoing and strategic partnership with Egypt and the pivotal role the Ministry of International Cooperation plays to coordinate relevant authorities to accelerate development. He added that partnership successes in Egypt throughout the 2018-2022 partnership framework reached a total of $240 million. The current portfolio between Egypt and the World Food Program amounts to $586 million in a variety of sectors, the most important of which is the development of rural Egypt, where there are currently projects implemented in 63 villages in 5 governorates.