Egypt's Social Fund for Development (SFD) secures 40.2 million Egyptian pounds (around US$ 5.6 million) in favour of sub-projects aiming to protect the country's River Nile. Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Hossam Al Mogazy and Soha Soliman- Secretary General of SFD – have signed Monday an agreement to finance four sub-projects as pursuant to the World Bank-funded Emergency Labor Intensive Investment Project (ELIIP) and the third German debt swap agreement. The four sub-projects are for the River Nile side protection in addition to another project for the canal cleaning and weeds reduction, which will be implemented in five governorates; Giza, Luxor, Beheira, Qalyubia, and Assyout. In this respect, minister Al Moghazy stated that protection of Nile sides sub-projects would be implemented in about 17 km of the river banks, with a total cost of about 37.7 million pounds (around US$5.2 million). Those projects aim to create around 2179 job opportunities, he added. From her part, SFD's Soha Soliman pointed out that those projects come within the framework of the third German debt swap agreement and World Bank-EU-funded ELIIP. The objectives of the project are to create short-term employment opportunities for unemployed unskilled and semi-skilled workers and to provide access to basic infrastructure services to the target population in poor areas. The Egyptian Social Fund for Development (SFD) was established in 1991 to effectively participate in poverty alleviation and job creation and to ensure development of integrated, participatory and gender - sensitive approached in the provision and management of basic services through participatory approach.
