Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity, Dr. Nevine El-Kabbaj, confirmed that cooperation between the Ministry of Solidarity and the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has succeeded in implementing several economic empowerment projects in 7 governorates, including Cairo, Giza, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, and Beheira, to provide aid, economic and social interventions, and awareness campaigns for about 150,000 women directly and 15 million women indirectly.
The Minister stated that the projects implemented by the Economic Empowerment Program were allocated $38.5 million from the United States Agency for International Development, as it is planned to cover 5 years and be held in cooperation with civil society associations and coordination is being done with 11 civil society organizations to cooperate with access to Targeted women and working to empower them economically and socially in the communities in which the partner associations operate.
El-Kabbaj further said that in order to ensure a fair and comprehensive evaluation of the proposals submitted by civil society organizations, the program formed a technical committee that includes representatives from the program and the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s work team, intending to evaluate and review the submitted proposals and choosing the best papers to implement the activities, pointing out that the implemented projects include designing a qualification program for employment for women in the Beheira, Cairo, and Giza governorates as a first stage, where coordination was made with the Solidarity Directorate in the Beheira Governorate to mobilize a group of women and men in order to employ them in one of the ready-made clothing manufacturing companies in Beheira and a similar program is being implemented targeting the Cairo and Giza governorates before disseminating this experience in the Upper Egypt governorates.
She added that the cooperation plan between Solidarity and the Economic and Social Empowerment Program for Women also includes cooperation in improving the work environment in private sector companies through the National Program for Early Childhood Development of the Ministry.
The plan also includes developing nurseries affiliated with the Ministry and close to the companies participating in the program so that female workers in factories that do not have internal nurseries can find advanced services for their families.
