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Egypt Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028

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Overview

Key messages

• In the prevailing socio-economic conditions, WFP continued its support to the Government of Egypt, through its new five-year Country Strategic Plan launched in July 2023, to address food security challenges.

• In the second half of 2023, WFP assisted 720,000 people in the most underprivileged areas, including over 200,000 refugees • WFP scaled up its response capacity to respond and to provide support to two major emergencies in the region, the ongoing Sudan crisis since April 2023 and the conflict in Gaza starting in October 2023

WFP Egypt launched its new 2023-2028 Country Strategic Plan (CSP) in July to expand on the previous CSP and continue supporting the Government in addressing nutrition and food security challenges. WFP’s CSP aims to address the root causes of food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition by implementing diverse interventions in the areas of social protection, nutrition, resilience-building among smallholder farmers, and national capacity strengthening in alignment with Egypt's Vision 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework1 .
From July to December 2023, WFP provided USD 27.9 million of assistance to over 720,000 people. WFP continued its critical support to the ongoing Sudan emergency response and contributed to the response efforts to the Gaza emergency in October.

Despite funding challenges, WFP continued providing vital cash assistance to 185,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including those affected by the Sudan crisis. However, due to limited funding as of September 2023, WFP had to reduce the number of assisted refugees from other nationalities (excluding newcomer Sudanese) by 35 percent. Additionally, cash assistance for nutritional support for 8,000 pregnant and breastfeeding refugee women (PBW) and food-for-training activities for 3,750 refugees and host communities continued to be halted.

From the onset of the Sudan crisis in April until December 2023, WFP provided food and cash assistance to 115,000 people fleeing Sudan, in partnership with the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) and other NGOs. WFP also offered its cash-delivery platform to sister UN agencies and partners to facilitate their reach to more vulnerable Sudanese. In response to the Gaza crisis starting in October 2023, WFP’s Regional Bureau in Cairo provided logistical support to the emergency response efforts led by the government and the ERC for the delivery of critical food aid across the borders.

On the development front, WFP, in partnership with the Government of Egypt, strengthened its integrated rural development approach for the promotion of social protection, climate adaptation, education, nutrition and resilience-building, under the national 'Decent Life' initiative (‘Hayah Karima’ in Arabic) for the development of Egyptian rural villages. To boost employability and access to livelihood opportunities, WFP collaborated with the Ministry of Labour to offer vocational training and skills development programmes to 379 young people2 in vulnerable situations, focusing on various fields in-demand in the labour market. This was complemented with capacity strengthening to the Ministry on labour market information management, fostering public-private partnerships, and a twinning programme between the ministry’s trainers and service providers.

At the village level, WFP strengthened capacities of local stakeholders on food security, economic empowerment and other issues of concern through social behavioural change communication (SBCC) activities. WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation enhanced the resilience of smallholder farmers in Upper Egypt against the impact of climate change; sustainable agricultural practices were introduced, including land consolidation, water-saving irrigation techniques and the utilization of solar energy. Moreover, farmers were trained on agricultural waste management through machinery, serving as an additional source of income for households. WFP provided rural women with in-kind loans, such as live poultry, allowing for income-generation and improved food security to their families.

During the second half of 2023, WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, complemented the national school feeding programme, distributing 510 mt of daily in-school fortified date bars to about 99,000 community school students in nine governorates, helping secure 25 percent of children’s daily nutritional needs. Moreover, 241,000 family members of community school students received monthly cash assistance, conditional on their children’s regular school attendance, helping them meet their basic needs and incentivizing them to keep children in school and protect them against negative coping strategies. WFP provided technical support to the national school attendance platform and implemented wide-scale trainings for thousands of teachers on its use, in addition to trainings on school feeding, nutrition and food handling to school feeding officers nationwide.

WFP has taken concrete steps to complement the Government’s efforts to combat chronic malnutrition in Egypt through its support to the national ‘first 1,000 days of life’ nutrition programme. In partnership with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, WFP provided monthly cash top-ups to 60,000 vulnerable Egyptian PBW and their children under the age of two registered in the social safety net programme 'Solidarity and Dignity' (‘Takaful w Karama’ in Arabic).

WFP collaborated with the Government to establish sustainable food and national nutrition security programmes. WFP supported the revival of the national flour fortification programme to tackle micronutrient deficiencies among the Egyptian population with the provision of equipment to approximately 76 participating flour mills across the country.

Additionally, WFP contributed to strengthening capacities of national institutions through dedicated training programmes for healthcare and community workers involved in the national school nutrition, the ‘first 1,000 days’, and flour fortification programmes. These efforts align with WFP's goal of promoting sustainable food and nutrition security in Egypt through multisectoral integration of nutrition across different programmes.

Moreover, WFP and its partners implemented SBCC initiatives, reaching over 12,000 mothers, children, and community members in 11 governorates to enhance awareness on nutrition and health practices in alignment with national initiatives (such as Awareness, ‘Waei’ in Arabic, and ‘100 Million Healthy Lives’, ‘100 Million Seha’ in Arabic).

On the 2023 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Index, Egypt moved up six ranks from the previous year reaching 81/166. Egypt also ranked 31/166 countries in the International Spillover Index, with a significant spillover score of 98.7/1003 . This score exemplifies Egypt’s ability to significantly contribute positively and minimize the negative impact on other nations’ endeavours toward achieving the SDGs.

The launch of the new CSP was developed in alignment with Egypt’s Vision 2030 and a focus to enhance the Government’s capacity to achieve SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger) and 17 (Partnerships).