Egypt, USAID join forces to execute $105 million projects – minister
Egypt and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have agreed on implementing five projects worth $105 million, Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation announced on Tuesday.
The deal was agreed upon in a videoconference between Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat and USAID Mission Director in Egypt Sherry Carlin, Ahram Online reported on Tuesday.
The deal involves projects in providing socioeconomic support for women, the empowerment of young women, economic governance, the digitalisation of public services, transferring government agencies to the New Administrative Capital, economic courts, and development in the most needy governorates.
Carlin said that USAID is committed to increasing its investments in Egypt, especially in women’s empowerment and gender equality, for the sake of mitigating the negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak and in line with the common objectives of the Egyptian and US governments.
Minister Al-Mashat said the projects with USAID are expected to help ensure the sustainability of the country’s economic reforms, increase economic growth, and increase women’s participation in the formal economy in cooperation with the private sector and the National Council for Women.
The minister said that USAID is a strategic partner to the Egyptian government in a number of development projects in health, education, agriculture and women’s empowerment.
The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and USAID stands at $1 billion through the Egyptian-American Business Fund for supporting SMEs and bilateral agreements in tourism, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, education, trade and investment, women’s empowerment, and the SME sectors, according to the international cooperation ministry.
USAID is an independent agency under the US federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
Since 1978, the US has provided through USAID over $30 billion for programs in education, health, economic development, democracy and governance.
