● Al-Mashat: The Ministry of International Cooperation has implemented an innovative framework for international cooperation and development financing, using national platforms to achieve integration between partners and combine development efforts and climate action.
The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, met with the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) , Cindy McCain, during H.E.’s participation in the Italia-Africa summit in Rome. The meeting witnessed discussions on many joint cooperation files between the two sides.
Al-Mashat applauded the continued cooperation and coordination between the Ministry of International Cooperation and the WFP in preparing the program’s country strategy in Egypt 2023-2027.
H.E. emphasized the government's interest in enhancing joint work with international institutions and development partners on advancing climate action efforts, and the participation of the WFP in the NWFE program to finance a list of green government projects in the fields of energy, food and water, under the umbrella of the National Climate Change Strategy.
H.E. also stressed the long-term strategic partnership with the WFP to expand programs and projects to enhance food security, increase the incomes of small farmers, and stimulate south-south cooperation through development experiments implemented in various governorates of Egypt, and the consistency of these efforts with national plans, priorities, and presidential initiatives, especially "Haya Karima" initiative.
In this regard, Al-Mashat stressed the importance of the joint project with the WFP to develop school feeding, as it is among the government's priorities, and receives constant attention from H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and continuous follow-up by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, because of its great importance in providing integrated nutritional elements for students at various educational levels and enhancing a sound food security system. H.E. also noted that the project comes as part of the “Haya Karima” presidential initiative to develop the villages of the Egyptian countryside at the level of investment in human capital.
They also discussed the challenges facing food security worldwide in light of geopolitical crises and their impact on supply chains, in addition to the programs to be implemented in Egypt in light of the country program, the Strategic Development Cooperation Framework with the United Nations 2023-2027, and Egypt’s Vision 2030.
Al-Mashat reviewed the details of the annual report launched by the Ministry of International Cooperation on December 17, under the title “International Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Platforms for Policy and Practice,” which includes the results of international partnerships with multilateral and bilateral development partners, and soft development financing over the period 2020-2023.
In this context, Al-Mashat said that multilateral cooperation and international relations have been the subject of a major test over the past years, in light of the successive challenges and crises starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic, social and health repercussions, then the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and its impact on supply chains and the global economy, as well as Geopolitical challenges. H.E. added that the Ministry of International Cooperation worked to transform the national vision and various strategies of the Arab Republic of Egypt into tangible international partnerships on the ground, and implemented an innovative framework for development cooperation using national platforms to achieve integration between development partners and combine development efforts and climate action.
Al-Mashat also pointed to the government's vision to strengthen economic relations with multilateral and bilateral development partners at the regional and international levels, and to mobilize supportive efforts to achieve economic development in all sectors, as the Ministry of International Cooperation works to develop an integrated framework for development cooperation that becomes the umbrella under which all strategies with multilateral and bilateral development partners in a way that enhances integration in efforts made, maximizes the benefit of development financing in meeting the priorities of the Egyptian state, stimulates the principles of transparency, comprehensiveness and integration, maximizes the benefit of concessional development financing to achieve development, enhance climate action, and expand private sector support mechanisms.
Al-Mashat said that global challenges have reinforced the need for the importance of expanding food, water, and energy security efforts to confront emergency shocks, noting that after the COVID-19 pandemic, there has become an urgent need to take greater care of the agricultural sector. This is embodied in the partnership with the WFP in climate change projects, with its successful approach that leads to increasing the agricultural area, using new irrigation methods, providing clean, renewable energy, and technical support to farmers, is an integrated program with the support of the Program and the Ministry of Agriculture.
For her part, the Executive Director of the WFP thanked Al-Mashat and the Egyptian government for the fruitful cooperation with the WFP, applauded the successes that occurred in Egypt despite the difficult circumstances that the world is going through.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Al-Mashat invited the Executive Director of the WFP to visit Egypt and inspect joint projects between the Egyptian government and the WFP related to food security.
The partnership between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the WFP extends for more than 50 years, to support sustainable development programs, complete social protection programs, and provide food security for the most needy groups.
The current portfolio between Egypt and the WFP amounts to $586 million, through which many projects are implemented, the most important of which is the project to achieve agricultural and rural development in Upper Egypt, where the program implemented projects in 63 villages in 5 governorates during its first phase.