(AFP Photo /Brendan Smialowski)
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $400m to support 1.5 million Egyptian families in poverty through aiding the Egyptian government’s social safety nets project entitled “Solidarity and Dignity” (Takafol w Karama).
On the side-lines of the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC), Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb met Managing Director of the World Bank Sri Mulyani Indrawati, where the latter said the Bank will offer $400m to Egypt to launch programmes to eliminate poverty and elevate the standards of living in Egypt.
The families to receive support will be carefully chosen to ensure that resources are delivered to the poorest sectors those desperately in need, state-run MENA reported.
Those under the umbrella of the programme include children, people suffering from severe disabilities and elderlies, whereby the programme aims to help expand the income and social inclusion of those families.
Within the framework of the “Solidarity and Dignity” programme, each poor family will receive a monthly income based on incentives tied to the rate of school attendance and utilization of health care services provided to children and mothers.
Egypt’s poverty rate reached 26.3% in the year 2012/13.Also according to a recent report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), approximately 9.2 million children aged between 0-17 years old are living in poverty.
Furthermore, in its statistical abstract issued about child poverty in Egypt, CAPMAS said 53% of these children live in Upper Egypt.
The project will support the Egyptian government’s new cash transfer programme and will help improve the targeting mechanisms used in the social safety net system, indicated Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa in a statement.
He further noted that the Bank mobilises its international expertise to ensure that the most vulnerable and in need get access to and benefit from the programme and its offerings.
In March 2015 the Bank finalised negotiations with the Ministry of Housing over a $500m loan to support the 1m residential units’ project, also referred to as the “social housing project”. The loan is to be repaid over a five year period.
In November 2014, Hartwig Schafer, Vice President of the Bank, told Daily News Egypt that the World Bank has a portfolio of 27 projects and they account for around $5.5bn. Around half of these 27 projects are in the energy sector.
