Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar met with Praveen Agrawal — Resident Representative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt — and Deputy Director of the WFP in Egypt Rossella Fanali to discuss cooperation between the two sides.
According to a statement from the Health Ministry on Monday, Abdel Ghaffar thanked the WFP for its continuous efforts to support the improvement of healthy nutrition programmes in Egypt, stressing his aspiration to expand cooperation by developing existing programmes and introducing new ones.
Hossam Abdel Ghaffar — Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population — said that the meeting witnessed discussions of many files of common interest between the two sides, including support for presidential initiatives aiming to support the public health of citizens.
The two sides also discussed ways of cooperation within the presidential initiative for early detection of obesity, anaemia, and stunting for school students by educating students, teachers, and parents about proper nutrition, as well as providing balanced meals that support the health of students.
Abdel Ghaffar pointed out that the meeting discussed the WFP’s support for Egypt in facing micronutrient deficiency (hidden hunger) by supporting the process of importing nutrients that contribute to solving child malnutrition problems.
He added that the meeting also discussed future programmes that will be implemented within a five-year plan from 2023 to 2027, which aims to improve the public health of citizens and ensure their protection from disease by paying attention to the quality of food provided to them and providing the necessary awareness about proper nutrition.
Moreover, the meeting also dealt with ways to improve the school feeding programme, which targets schools in the Egyptian villages included in the Decent Life presidential initiative to ensure the provision of integrated diets fortified with iron and vitamins, as well as the training of cadres working in school nutrition.
