Farms: Empowering Women & Tackling Poverty in Egypt

#IWD2015 UNDP Egypt is working to reduce poverty with a holistic approach of empowering women and girls, providing services to the poor, education, and vocational & artisanal training. The Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID) was launched in Qena in May 2012, focusing on youth and women’s socio-economic empowerment, particularly on job creation, vocational training and literacy. The project aims to develop and design effective strategies that address obstacles to vital social and economic development challenges. Its aim is to create a viable process for the identification of problem areas and for the dissemination of solutions to selected national problems in an integrated process. The work of ENID is embedded in UNDP’s Local Economic Development (LED) approach which aims to activate the role of local authorities as critical players in the process of LED promotion. The project covers five major domains, each of which has the potential to impact significantly on poverty reduction. These five domains are: (i) the economic empowerment of women and youth; (ii) promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); (iii) agricultural productivity and off-farm employment; (iv) upgrading basic services in rural Upper Egypt; and (v) administrative and fiscal decentralization.