The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) is developing an informal housing area in Zawya El Hamra neighbourhood in Cairo, with a total financing of EGP 62m, granted by the French Development Agency (AFD). The first phase of the project includes developing the area's facilities and two schools, and building health units, gardens, public markets, a microbus station. The second phase focuses on providing training programmes, where 150 women have been trained in sewing, jewellery making, and household waste recycling. MSMEDA will also facilitate access to the area's residents to the agency's loans. MSMEDA invited journalists to visit the area, where the agency reviewed its projects there, in the presence of several MSMEDA leaders, including Medhat Masoud, head of the Central Sector for Community and Human Development in the agency, along with representatives of the European Union and the AFD. Noteworthy, MSMEDA is implementing urban upgrading and employment promotion programmes in several informal housing areas both in Cairo and Giza, including Zawya El Hamra, Izbat Khairallah, Ard El Liwaa, and Mit Okba, all funded by the AFD through a €15m grant from the EU since January 2017. The agency's urban upgrading programmes come in the framework of the state plan to achieve sustainable development, through creating employment opportunities and developing infrastructure. MSMEDA also provides training programmes to the residents of these informal housing areas, enabling them to establish their own small and micro projects. The agency implements these projects in partnership with the governorates and ministries concerned, through small local contractors and NGOs.
