Overview
During the end of its 2018-2023 Country Strategic Plan (CSP)-January to June 2023- WFP continued to align its efforts in Egypt to reaching the most vulnerable through securing basic food and nutritional needs; building livelihoods; and strengthening the Government’s institutional capacities. WFP was able to secure 25.5 percent of required resources for the six months, an improvement compared to previous years. This enabled WFP to provide USD 15.7 million in cash and food assistance, reaching nearly 600,000 people.
WFP and the Government implemented development programmes addressing the vulnerable communities' needs and the global food crisis's impacts on Egyptian and refugee communities.
WFP distributed in-school snacks to over 116,000 community school students1 , amounting to over 835 mt, complementing the country's national school feeding programme. Fortified date-bars distributed in schools helped secure the daily minimum caloric needs of students. WFP also provided monthly cash to 176,000 family members of community school students to secure their basic needs and encourage student attendance.
To help meet their basic needs, cash assistance was provided to 100,000 refugees from 10 nationalities2 who were identified among the most in need. WFP also provided cash assistance to over 3,500 pregnant and breastfeeding refugee women to incentivise their pre- and post-natal medical follow-ups. However, WFP’s food-for-training programme targeting refugees and host communities remained suspended due to insufficient funding.
The onset of the Sudan crisis in April resulted in the sudden arrival of over 200,000 Sudanese3 . As part of the UN Sudan Crisis Response, WFP collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to launch a rapid response, providing emergency food at the border crossings of Argeen and Qustol, and cash assistance in destination cities, reaching over 160,000 people.
Additionally, WFP made its pre-existing cash platform available to UN sister agencies, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), contributing to a joint response to reach vulnerable people. Starting in mid-June, to reduce risks of long-term health problems among children and women at the Egypt-Sudan borders and transition points,
WFP, Ministry of Health and Population and UNICEF provided screening, referral and acute malnutrition services to those crossing the border.
Additionally, WFP and the Government established a humanitarian corridor between Egypt and Sudan for delivering assistance. To aid people affected by conflict in Sudan, the corridor allowed UN agencies, development organisations and partners to deliver assistance. Notably, the initial cross-border movement on 16 June delivered 50 mt of WFP food from Egypt to Sudan.
As part of WFP's support for the national 'First 1,000 Days' nutrition-sensitive social protection initiative, WFP provided monthly cash assistance to about 60,000 of the most vulnerable Egyptian pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children (under 2 years) enrolled in the Ministry of Social Solidarity's social safety net programme, Takaful and Karama.
Additionally, WFP supported the Government’s efforts to address micronutrient deficiencies through the national flour fortification programme by providing rehabilitation support to approximately 40 mills across the nation. A technical working group was formed by H.E the Minister of Supply and Internal Trade to oversee the implementation, with technical support from WFP.4
In alignment with the national ‘Decent Life‘ initiative,5 WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) collaborated to address the climate change impacts on Egyptian rural communities. 100,000 smallholder farmers6 benefited from climate-adaptive rural development interventions such as land consolidation, use of heat-tolerant seeds and advanced sustainable agricultural and irrigation practices, helping increase their income and enhancing their resilience to climate-related challenges, therefore safeguarding their food security and livelihoods.
WFP upgraded the national geospatial data management platforms, enabling data-driven analysis for important ministries, including updating the Ministry of Education's geodatabase for school feeding and developing agri-maps of strategic crops for MALR.
For the next CSP July 2023-June 2028, WFP formulated its plan based on the evaluation findings of the ending CSP.7 Recommendations included strengthening ties with national counterparts to ensure the roll-out and upscale of activities, reinforcing the integration of gender and monitoring, more consistent partnerships with sister United Nations agencies and joint advocacy for flexible funding. The findings of the terminal evaluation further affirmed that the previous plan had aligned with government needs while building upon existing partnerships and accomplishments to enhance food security