Egypt
- 32.5%
- live beneath the income poverty line (World Bank 2017)
- 7.3%
- of people were unemployed in 2021
- 104.4 million
- population
With a growing population of 104.4 million, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, and an influential geopolitical actor in the region.
In line with Egypt’s Sustainability Development Strategy: Vision 2030, the country has transformed the design, delivery and scope of its national social protection programmes and the National School Feeding Programme to better support vulnerable groups.
While maintaining positive economic growth, Egypt faces a set of long-standing development challenges, including poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, spatial and social disparity, and gender-based inequality, as well as climate shocks.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Egypt
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Social protection
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In line with the national school feeding programme, WFP provides nutritious, daily in-school snacks (fortified date bars) to community schoolchildren in Egypt’s poorest governorates. To further incentivize retention in schools and combat child labour and early marriage, WFP provides cash assistance for food to families of community schoolchildren. Together with partner Ministries, WFP also supports the advancement of digital education, through the use of digital tools and teacher training, as well as the economic inclusion of youth and women through entrepreneurial training, vocations skills development, and microloans.
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Support to refugees and migrants
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In coordination with other humanitarian organizations, WFP provides assistance to vulnerable refugees to help meet their basic food needs. This is done through cash assistance for food, nutrition support for pregnant and nursing women, and livelihood training to improve employment opportunities.
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Nutrition
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Under the ”First 1,000 Days" nutrition programme, WFP and the Ministry of Social Solidarity provide cash top-ups to pregnant and nursing women, under the national social protection programme “Takaful and Karama” (Solidarity and Dignity), to help secure good nutrition. WFP also provides technical support to national nutrition activities and awareness-raising campaigns.
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Resilience building
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WFP collaborates with the Government to strengthen smallholder farmers’ and Bedouin communities’ capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change and improve agricultural productivity. We do this through improved agricultural and irrigation practices, developing connections to markets, financial literacy and inclusion and cash-based transfers.
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Country capacity strengthening
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WFP provides technical and capacity-strengthening support to national institutions and governmental bodies, improving their capacity to adopt technological solutions in education and for the collection, management and analysis of information; strengthening supply chains; and improving regional and global knowledge-sharing.
Egypt news releases
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Find out more about the state of food security in Egypt
Visit the food security analysis pageOperations in Egypt
Contacts
Office
49 Street 105, Hadaek El Maadi,
Egypt
Phone
+20 2 25261993; 25261992
Fax
+20 2 25261976; 25261967