Egypt | World Food Programme

With a growing population of  more than 107 million, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, and an influential geopolitical actor in the region.

While maintaining positive economic growth, Egypt faces a complex economic landscape, with challenges related to inflation, currency devaluation and the impact of global and regional crises. "Multidimensional" poverty affects 21 percent of the population.

According to the 2024 Global Hunger Index, Egypt sustains a moderate level of food insecurity, ranking  63 out of 127  countries. Food affordability, quality and safety remain challenges due to a reliance on global markets for more than half of its staples.

Malnutrition is another public health concern, with 6.5 percent of children under 5 years suffering from stunting or wasting.

The World Food Programme (WFP) uses an integrated rural development approach to complement the Government’s Haya Kareema (Decent Life) initiative, which aims to support the poorest rural communities within the framework of Egypt Vision 2030.

WFP activities include school meals, nutrition, women and young people’s economic empowerment, climate-smart agriculture, capacity strengthening, and assistance for refugees and Egyptian host communities.

What the World Food Programme is doing in Egypt

Refugees and crisis-affected populations: As of April 2025, more than 1.5 million Sudanese fleeing the Sudan crisis had arrived in Egypt. The country hosts more than 902,000 registered refugees. WFP supports them and other crisis-affected people through monthly cash assistance. Additionally, to foster long-term self-reliance and social cohesion, WFP offers a skills development and vocational training programme to refugees, Sudanese crisis-affected people and Egyptians within host communities. WFP provides pregnant and breastfeeding refugee women with monthly cash, conditional on regular health check-ups, as well as nutrition-awareness sessions.
Youth and women's empowerment: WFP provides young men and women with vocational training and skills development, to increase their employability and access to decent jobs and livelihoods. Training focuses on high-demand employment sectors including renewable energy, agribusiness and hospitality. WFP provides training to women and provides them with loans to start businesses that can support their families and children. WFP's She Can programme has enabled women to increase households incomes by 30–50 percent.
Resilience building: WFP, in partnership with the Government, strengthens rural farmers’ resilience to the effects of climate change, while also improving their agriculture and irrigation practices. Measures include solar panels for renewable energy, land consolidation, improved seed varieties and agricultural waste processing. WFP also empowers women in rural communities through loans and training.
School meals: WFP complements the national school-meals programme by providing fortified, in-school snacks to children in community schools, and cash assistance to families – conditional on their child’s school attendance. WFP also supports the quality of education through the use of technology and internet connectivity in supported schools, to improve teaching and learning.
Nutrition: WFP believes in healthy beginnings for all. WFP complements Egypt's nutrition-sensitive social protection system, giving extra care to pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under 2. Under the “First 1,000 Days" nutrition programme, WFP and the Government provide cash top-ups to pregnant and nursing women, to help secure their essential nutrition. WFP also provides technical support to national nutrition activities and awareness-raising campaigns.
Country capacity strengthening: By building bridges of knowledge, fostering cooperation between nations, and sharing solutions, WFP seeks to galvanize sustainable development. WFP provides technical and capacity-strengthening support to national institutions and governmental bodies, improving national capacities to adopt technological solutions for the collection, management and analysis of information; strengthening supply chains; and improving regional and global knowledge-sharing for development.