Egypt, GIZ agree to finance 11 Projects worth €132.8M

CAIRO - 16 November 2020:Ministry of International Cooperation and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) agreed to finance 11 new projects worth €132.8 million for 2021.

This came during the bilateral round of talks, which was held this November virtually between the Egyptian and German governments, headed by  Mona Ahmed, First Under-Secretary of the Ministry of International Cooperation, and Bernd Dönslav, Director-General for the Middle East at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, in the presence of  Sherihan Bakhit, Assistant Minister of International Cooperation, and  Bahaa Al-Raidi, Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation, with the participation of 41 representatives from Egyptian ministries and government agencies, and 31 representatives from German governmental and development institutions.  

Financed through the Ministry of International Cooperation, the projects come under the ministry’s Global Partnerships Narrative, which is defined by the triple Ps: people at the core, projects in action, and purpose as the driver to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Tapping on the potential of Egyptian youth, the projects aim to promote technical and vocational education, enhance community participation, invest in job creation through supporting the private sector, as well as ensuring environmental sustainability through promoting the sustainable management of water. 

Representatives from the Ministries of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Housing and Utilities, Urban Communities, Environment, Trade and Industry, Education, Social Solidarity, Youth and Sports, Communications and Information Technology, Planning and Economic Development, Central Agency For Organization and Administration, the Egyptian embassy in Berlin, in addition to representatives of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the German Foreign Office, the German Embassy in Cairo, the German Agency for International Cooperation and the German Construction Bank.

The cooperation between Egypt and Germany falls under two categories: the first is through bilateral cooperation agreements, and the second is through the debt swap program, where the projects agreed upon in the first phase of the Egyptian-German debt swap program are worth €70 million.

Last February, an executive contract for the joint Egyptian-German bilateral committee for renewable energy and energy efficiency, amounting to 15.5 million Euros, was signed in favor of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy in February 2020

In November 2020, the Egyptian German Center for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration was launched, with a total budget of 2 million Euros, as part of the cooperation between the Egyptian government represented by the Ministry of 18 19 International Cooperation, the Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the German government.

The center helps to promote safe and orderly migration opportunities for Egyptian youth and provide job opportunities to curb illegal migration, and helps Egyptians abroad to integrate into society by providing the necessary social and economic services.

Ministry of International Cooperation seeks to apply principles of economic diplomacy to strengthen the ‘Global Partnerships for Effective Development’. These principles include regularly organizing multi-stakeholder platforms to ensure that all projects between development partners are streamlined and effectively coordinated to accelerate the pace of development for the achievement of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); adopting a consistent Global Partnerships Narrative People&Projects&Purpose (P&P&P); and mapping ODA financing to SDGs for all projects with multilateral and bilateral development partners.

The current cooperation portfolio between Egypt and Germany amounts to 1.7 billion euros in various sectors such as irrigation, sanitation, energy, the private sector, urban development, small and medium enterprises, the environment, education, administrative reform, governance, agriculture and social protection.