The main purpose of the study, which was conducted by NSCE under the FAO’s Regional Initiative on Sustainable Small-Scale Agriculture (SSA) for Inclusive development, is to generate a deep understanding of the value chains with all actors involved and producers organizations and an action plan for gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment within the value chains and producers organizations catalyzing the sustainable and inclusive development of SSA in the region and in Egypt in particular. The Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) value chain was selected for the study, because it presents a high growth potential for all the actors involved along the chain, as well as strong opportunities for women empowerment. The study followed a two-fold objective:  To conduct an in-depth gender-sensitive value chain analysis (GSVC) of the MAPs value, and;

 To carry out a rapid assessment of producers organizations (POs) capacity development needs in the Egyptian MAPs’ sector.

To achieve those goals, the study pursued the following steps:

 Mapping out the Egyptian MAPs value chain;

 Identifying the positions and roles of women at each node of the MAPs value chain;

 Assessing the capacity development needs within the Producer Organizations (POs) involved in the MAPs value chain;

 Analyzing key age and gender-based specific constraints and opportunities along the chain, including within the POs;

 To develop an action plan in order to improve the overall performance of the Egyptian MAPs value chain, to develop or reinforce the capacities of the POs, while contributing to the empowerment of women and young people.