Egypt

While Egyptians on average live to 70 years of age, and the proportion of undernourished is less than five per cent, the country’s agricultural sector has seen hard times in recent years. Avian influenza has proven difficult to control, and the spread to humans has cost 51 lives. In a country where approximately 3 percent of the land is arable, desert locusts occasionally invade its deserts and fields, a situation that requires continuous monitoring. About 24 million Egyptians (or more than one-quarter of the population) work in the farming, forestry and fishing industries.

FAO's main in-country programmes

Special Programe for Food Security
FAO has helped Egypt improve food security since 1997 under the umbrella of its Special Programme for Food Security. Among the first initiatives, the National Plan of Operations and an irrigation project were funded by FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). The TCP also contributed US$470 000 to a project on water control and US$234 000 to a project for intensification and diversification of agricultural production systems, both in Egypt’s New Valley. 

EMPRES Animal Health Component
Egypt has had continuing outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in domestic poultry since February 2006. As of March 2009, 1445 outbreaks in poultry and 63 human cases (of which 23 were fatal) were officially reported. Over the past three years, there is no indication of improvement in the control of the disease. At the request of the Government of Egypt, FAO, WHO and UNICEF are currently (April 2009) undertaking an evaluation of the performances of respective ministries (Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and Ministry of Health and Population) in view of HPAI control approaches and strategies. FAO strongly assists Egypt in the control of HPAI, through two national and five regional/international on-going emergency projects covering all aspects of the control (laboratory, biosecurity and so on). FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases country team provides technical assistance to the government on a daily basis. 

FAO contributed to the organization in October 2008 of the 6^th International Interministerial Conference on Avian and Human Influenza in Sharm-El-Sheikh. 

Egypt is also affected by Foot-and-Mouth-Disease (FMD) with three outbreaks notified for 2009. A national TCP targeting FMD and FMD-like diseases has been in place since 2008. 

EMPRES DesertLocust Components
Egypt participated actively in FAO’s Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES), Desert Locust Component Programme in the Central Region (1995-2006). Its objective was to promote effective preventive control strategies based on early warning, early reaction and environmentally sound control interventions. Egypt regularly hosted events and adopted the new technologies encouraged by EMPRES, including RAMSES (locust data management system). It also carried out surveys as required, as part of the strategy of preventive control, and participated several times in joint border surveys with Sudan. When the EMPRES programme ended in the Central Region, in December 2006, its activities were handed over to the FAO Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Central Region (CRC), of which Egypt is a member. A number of activities are now organized or promoted by the CRC, including training courses and workshop, publications, research, joint surveys, preparation of contingency plans, etc. 

UN Coordination Activities
The UN Resident Coordinator leads the UN country team, ensuring that all UN agencies work in a coordinated manner to support Government of Egypt efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals with a special focus on reducing poverty, expanding employment, promoting women’s empowerment and strengthening democratic institutions. The coordinator has been active during 2008 in these areas among others: 

An interagency assessment mission lead by FAO and including World Food Progamme, the World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) visited the country in late 2008 to assist the country with soaring food prices. The agencies submitted an assessment of the impact of the food price hike on inflation, poverty and malnutrition among other things and proposed an immediate action plan.

Recognizing the challenges that climate change poses to Egypt’s coastal zones, water resources and agriculture, six UN agencies – UN Development Programme, UN Environment Programme, UN Industrial Development Organization, FAO, IFAD and UNESCO – have joined forces to support Egyptian government efforts through a joint programme.

The UNCG, led by UNIC, focused on articulating key UN messages to strengthen the UN’s media profile and gain a positive understanding on the work of the UN in the Egyptian public. Two MDG campaigns – Sailing the Nile for the MDGs and Stand-Up against Poverty – were successful in reaching out to the public nationwide.