By Ahmed El-Adly
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower in the framework of the European Union’s child labour project.
The project is entitled the ‘Access of Children to Education and Fighting Child Labour’ project, with a €60m fund from the EU.
The MoU stipulates that the Ministry of Manpower will be responsible for developing and maintaining the project’s Child Labour Monitoring System (CLMS) at the ministerial level, as well as the governorate level. The monitoring system will track the project’s beneficiaries and will support the implementation of the national child protection mechanism included in Child Law No.126/2008.
“Through financing this programme, the EU is contributing to the ongoing efforts to tackle some of the most critical issues affecting Egypt’s poorest children: under nutrition, access to quality primary education, and stopping child labour,” said James Moran, Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt, according to a press release.
“We are proud to be part of helping 100,000 children, particularly young girls in primary schools, to pursue their education and maintain their rights,” Moran added.
The €60m project targets16 of the most vulnerable governorates in Egypt with the aim of ending child labour through enhancing access to education, especially for girls.
WFP previously signed a MoU with the Ministry of Education in January 2015, and with the Ministry of Social Solidarity in March 2015, regarding the implementation of this four-year project.
Through this project, WFP will provide 100,000 children in community schools with a daily in-school snack (date bars fortified with vitamins and minerals) as well as monthly take-home food rations (10 kg of rice and one litre of oil) for their families through its school feeding programme.
“WFP works in close coordination with the government of Egypt. It is through partnerships like these that we are able to implement such projects which are an important step towards the country’s economic and social development,” said Lubna Alaman, WFP Representative and Country Director.
