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Cairo houses IFAD’s 1st regional office due to serve 7 states under SDGs
Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Gilbert Houngbo opened on Monday the first IFAD regional office in Cairo. The office will serve seven states.
Director of the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia Division at IFAD Dr. Khalida Bouzar attended the inauguration event alongside Director of IFAD Sub-regional Office in Cairo Dr. Dina Saleh.
Nasr said opening the office crowned years of non-stop efforts by the ministry and IFAD to improve people’s living conditions, especially in rural areas.
She added that opening the office will further cooperation between Egypt and the fund in the coming period, noting that the fund will be quick to respond to Egypt’s agricultural development priorities, especially in the most needy areas.
The fund will support most vulnerable areas as well as small investors in the agricultural score in addition to empowering youths, promoting innovative projects, creating jobs for youths and women in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Nasr highlighted the pioneering role played by Egypt in the Arab region and the African continent, stressing keenness to sensitize international experts to the needs of farmers and consumers in the region as well as the challenges besetting them.
Meanwhile, IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo said the office will serve as a strategic center for buttressing IFAD’s rural development projects in order to end poverty, empower women and youths and create jobs in the region in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The fund will also offer technical support for farmers in the Arab region, including conflict zones like Syria.
Director of the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia Division at IFAD Dr. Khalida Bouzar said the new office is the fruit of a four-decade cooperation between Egypt and IFAD.
Egypt and IFAD bankrolled 14 projects at about dlrs 1,11 bn with an aim to support more than 7 million people in rural areas.
Bouzar said the projects funded by the IFAD and implemented in Egypt go in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as regional strategies to support rural areas, especially through generating jobs, empowering women, encouraging private investments which are meant to eradicate rural poverty and improve national food security.
In Egypt, IFAD managed to increase production in old lands in the Nile Valley and lower Egypt in addition to more sustainable use of natural resources.
For her part, Director of IFAD Sub-regional Office in Cairo Dr. Dina Saleh said the regional office in Cairo will boost IFAD’s investment portfolio across the region and will cement IFAD’s fruitful partnership with Djibouti, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Syria and Jordan.
Egypt is IFAD’s strategic option to prop up the successful partnership with Egypt, Saleh said, adding that Egypt is the biggest beneficiary of fund’s financial assistance in the Middle East and North Africa.
She added that Egypt was among the first member states which received money from the fund.
The new office will help further cooperation among the southern countries in order to exchange expertise.
The regional office in Cairo is managing an investment portfolio of 18 ongoing projects which can benefit more than 17 million people.
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