Egypt’s Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad; met with the Director of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) office in Egypt, Praveen Agrawal; and his accompanying delegation, to discuss bilateral cooperation mechanisms during the new strategic phase of the programme 2023-2027, and to cooperate in implementing activities aimed at achieving financial inclusion for small farmers and building the ability to adapt to the effects of climate change.
The Egyptian Environment Minister highlighted her ministry’s keenness to search for the best opportunities to involve youth, entrepreneurs, startups and the private sector in environmental and climate investment, especially with methods of promising future fields such as agriculture, food, waste management, investment in natural reserves and the involvement of the private sector.
Fouad noted that her ministry has established a new environmental and climate investment unit to highlight promising investment opportunities and help emerging companies seize them to invest in and link this to the national strategy for climate change. This will help create a supportive climate for achieving more investment and cooperation with specialized programmes to implement adaptation and mitigation projects and preserve natural resources. reserves, which are a real wealth of Egypt.
The Director of the World Food Programme Office praised Egypt’s distinguished model in preparing and organizing the COP27. He confirmed that the WFP adopts an integrated approach that looks at the development of society as a whole and not only the achievement of food security, through the implementation of community protection activities, and strengthening the capacities of communities affected by the effects of climate change to cope and adapt.
Agrawal pointed out that the programme is implementing a 10-year project to support small farmers, to help about 300,000 farmers in the field of land management, modern farming and irrigation methods, and appropriate crop types.
The programme aims to help farmers achieve financial inclusion, grant added value to agricultural projects, open markets in cooperation with the private sector, make agricultural projects more bankable, and shift from an informal economy to a formal economy. It is guided by the model of drying tomatoes in Upper Egypt, which added value to the tomato crop and encouraged more farmers and the private sector to invest in it.
During the meeting, the minister pointed to the possibility of cooperation in the field of benefiting from and investing in agricultural waste, especially with the completion of the national strategy for agricultural residues and its action plan that determines the size, types and distribution of agricultural waste in the governorates.
The meeting also addressed the possibility of cooperation in voluntary carbon certificates, and the possibility of supporting farmers and agricultural companies to enter this field by selling voluntary carbon certificates, which generates hard currency for the state.
