A US aid deal to Egypt, supporting the country in the fields of housing and health, was approved on Thursday by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, according to the Official Gazette.
The deal, which focuses on activities in the health and housing sectors, will particularly support Egypt’s family planning programme to regulate birth control and improve reproductive health, according to the decree.
The $19m deal was signed in May of this year, between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Egyptian Health Ministry.
The 5-year deal aims to increase demand for family planning services, enhance the quality of the services offered, as well as improve contraceptive use, hence reducing the number of pregnancies over time, according to the USAID.
The USAID will provide technical assistance and training to the Egyptian Ministry of Health to strengthen its Family Planning and Reproductive Health Programme.
Furthermore, the programme will be applied in nine governorates in Upper Egypt, in addition to several areas in Cairo and Alexandria.
For nearly 40 years, the USAID has worked along with the Egyptian population to improve advantageous practices by supporting maternal and child health, family planning, nutrition, immunisation, and disease prevention ventures, noted the statement.
The new family planning programme is part of the $30bn that the American people have invested in Egypt through the USAID since 1978, it added.
