Egypt’s Environment Minister, Yasmine Fouad; met with the Head of Africa, Middle East and Asia Region of Sanofi Company, Carol Ann Stewart; and the Head of the Africa Region, Mika Naidoo; to discuss mechanisms for building on fruitful cooperation during the past period and new areas for bilateral cooperation.
Fouad praised the fruitful cooperation with Sanofi, which is one of the first companies to realize the importance of participating in raising environmental awareness.
The Egyptian Environment Minister spoke about the current vision for the development of the environmental sector in Egypt. She pointed to the possibility of future cooperation in a number of fields, including linking the environment and health through a “one health strategy” launched by the Ministry of Health, which links plant, animal and human health and the preservation of the health of our planet.
Egyptian Environment Minister further pointed to the continuation of cooperation in the field of improving air quality, especially through the behaviour change component within the project that Egypt is implementing in cooperation with the World Bank to address air pollution and climate change in Greater Cairo, and the recently launched Integrated Air Quality and Climate Management Action Plan to link a local challenge that is facing pollution Air and the global challenge of climate change.
For her part, Stewart emphasized the similarity of visions between the Ministry of Environment and the company, and her aspiration to build on the current fruitful partnership in new areas such as the relationship between health, food and waste management.
The representative of the company indicated that they are looking forward to completing the partnership in confronting air pollution, and working on cooperation in the field of mental health and linking it to nature, especially since the company is currently cooperating with the Egyptian Medicines Authority in the “Take Care of Yourself” initiative to support women’s health.
The Egyptian Environment Minister indicated the possibility of cooperation also through the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment, “You are the beginning”, to get rid of used cooking oil, which helps housewives not to reuse the food oils and to dispose of them in an economical manner without throwing them in the banks, to obtain new oil and use the used oils in the production of biofuel.
