EU secures €70 million for Egypt emergency employment investment project

The European Union (EU) has secured a €70 million grant in favour of Egypt’s Emergency Employment Investment Project, EU Head of Operations in Egypt, Diego Escalona announced Sunday.

The Emergency Employment Investment Project is being implemented by the World Bank in cooperation with the Egyptian Social Fund for Development (SFD).

The development objective of the Emergency Employment Investment Project for Egypt is to: (i) create short-term employment opportunities for the unemployed, unskilled, and semi-skilled workers in selected locations in Egypt; (ii) contribute to the creation and or maintenance of community infrastructure and services; (iii) improve access to basic infrastructure and community services among the target population; and (iv) improve the employability of young men and women through short-term training or other support services to facilitate transitions to wage and self-employment. The project comprises of four components. The first component, employment-intensive small-scale infrastructure sub-projects will finance employment-intensive small infrastructure. The second component, intensive community service sub-projects and youth employment activities will support labor-intensive community service sub-projects through the provision of grants to local communities (non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community development associations (CDAs)) for sub-projects. The third component, improving workers’ employability will finance the piloting of two types of youth employment support activities, one aimed primarily at youth in urban areas and the second for youth in rural areas, to facilitate transitions into wage- or self-employment. The fourth component, project implementation and capacity building may finance: consultancy, training cost (tuition, travel, accommodation, per diem, etc.), non-consultancy services, material, office supplies, etc.