Socio-economic context
Egypt is among Africa's most populous countries; approximately 95 per cent of the country’s mostly rural and young population lives within 20 km of the Nile Valley and delta. Egypt, where the population is projected to reach 122 million by 2030, relies on agriculture as a major economic pillar and employment source.
However, it faces many challenges in the agricultural sector, including fragmented agricultural land, soil degradation and water scarcity. Egypt is also highly vulnerable to climate change, as it is exposed to increased droughts and heatwaves, coastal erosion, sea-level rise and land loss, putting additional stress on food systems.
SSTC engagement
The Government of Egypt is committed to contributing to the development of Africa and other countries under the umbrella of SSTC. The Government has expressed its willingness to share its experience working towards achieving Zero Hunger goal with other countries in Africa and worldwide. This transfer of knowledge and experience will be based on the successful interventions undertaken in Upper Egypt aimed at strengthening rural livelihoods, resilience and adaptation to climate change through enhanced techniques as well as implementing innovative food assistance programmes.
SSTC is identified as a key mechanism to support Egypt's development priorities, including health, food security, social protection, SMEs, innovation, digital transformation, and climate change.
SSTC in Egypt has developed over many years, but it was formally initiated in 2004 when a Presidential Decree appointed the Ministry of International Cooperation as the national entity responsible for advancing SSTC. This is demonstrated by Egypt’s Strategy for South-South and Triangular Economic Cooperation (May 2023), the Egypt–UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023–2027, Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa, and the 2025 Human Development Report (HDR) enhancing SSTC.
The importance of SSTC in Egypt, which is also one of the areas that the Egyptian Agency for Partnership Development is prioritizing, is also demonstrated by the fact that Egypt hosts the Luxor Coordination Centre for Knowledge Sharing and Innovation to promote resilience in Upper Egypt.
WFP Egypt country office and the Government of Egypt join forces and actively collaborate under the SSTC Agenda. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the establishment of Luxor Coordination Centre for Knowledge Sharing and Innovation to promote Resilience in Upper Egypt between WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. The Centre serves as a platform for innovation, knowledge sharing and identification of best practices based on Egypt’s institutional capacity, technical expertise, local experiences and political commitment to support African initiatives, and by incorporating WFP’s strengths in operational and programmatic design.
WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture are in the process of renewing the MoU to proceed with the Centre and will continue its role in accelerating the pace of investment in sustainable development and provide successful and replicable models of interventions in Egypt and other countries and will focus on the following activities:
- Supporting smallholder farmers on agricultural development and adaptation with the climate change for mitigating the risks of food insecurity at the local community level;
- Promoting green economy, including improving resources management for environmentally sustainable production;
- Enhancing the value chains through optimizing food production, processing, storage, transportation, conservation and marketing;
- Increasing access to knowledge and information by using the new technological tools;
- Fostering inclusion, women’s empowerment and protection: through linkages with other ongoing initiatives in resilience building, social protection and education; and
Enhancing referral systems within the community, to improve demand on government services such as nutrition primary health care services, protection, social protection and financial inclusion, etc.
Technical Expertise & Capacities
Social Protection
Social Protection
Egypt can share expertise in social protection. Particularly with the Haya Karima (HK) programme, also known as Decent Life, which is the largest rural development programme in Egypt in terms of funding and number of beneficiaries. It aims to ensure the quality of life by alleviating, multidimensional poverty and plays a critical role in advancing Egypt towards the 2030 Agenda. Additionally, Egypt’s Takaful and Karama programme, are conditional cash transfer initiatives launched by the Ministry of Social Solidarity as a national social safety-net mechanism to protect the poor through income support and contribute to poverty alleviation and gender equality initiatives.
Institutions Involved
- Ministry of Planning, Economic Development & International Cooperation
- Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
- Ministry of Social Solidarity
SSTC Modalities
- Study visits
- In-person trainings
- Knowledge product development
- In-field visits