UN’s IFAD earmarks $2bn finance to boost food security in Egypt
The United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and partner organisations will provide $2 billion in finance to boost food security in Egypt, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The finance came to support the North African country’s efforts to increase investment in food, water and energy.
The contribution will be channeled to the Egyptian government through loans until 2030 under the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) association programme, which aims to speed up the achievement of Egypt’s climate goals that will be announced at the COP27 Summit next month, IFAD further told Bloomberg. It added that the funding would be targeted at small-scale, rural farmers.
The UN climate conference will be taking place in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh from November 6-18.
IFAD will lead coordination of the food part of the programme, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will be responsible for the energy part of the programme. The African Development Bank (AFDB) will oversee water investments.
The NWFE programme comes as Africa, which has contributed the least to climate change in the form of emissions, struggles with extreme weather from rising seas, cyclones, and more frequent droughts and floods. For this, these threaten the food security of countries across the continent.
The money is for “production, food storage and food transportation,” Alvario Lario, IFAD’s president, noted in an interview last week, adding to “link markets with smallholder” farmers.
Small-scale farmers receive 1.7 percent of global climate finance while producing one-third of the world’s food and a livelihood for more than 3 billion people, IFAD stated.
Climate change is pushing towards lower crop yields, prompting the need for drought-resistant seeds, better irrigation systems, and weather forecasting systems to help farmers plan ahead.
