IFAD delegation to meet Egypt's Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of International Cooperation A high-level delegation of Executive Board members and senior staff of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) began an official one-week visit to Egypt, to observe the impact of IFAD's investments in the country. The delegates are representatives from Argentina, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, and Nigeria. "We are proud of our strategic and highly productive partnership with Egypt that marks four decades of a successful model of cooperation aimed at reducing poverty, addressing food insecurity and contributing to the resilience and improved livelihoods of more than eight million rural people," said Dina Saleh, IFAD's Regional Director for the Near East, North Africa, Central Asia, and Europe division. "The contributions of our member states are crucial in pursuing our shared goals in supporting rural people, developing rural economies and effectively investing in programmes that will help countries to end poverty by 2030 as part of their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," she added. The IFAD delegation will visit IFAD-supported projects in Egypt and meet with community members and family farmers in Noubaria, Kafr El Sheik, and Amreya to review the impact of the projects on people's livelihoods and discuss the challenges that they are facing. Agriculture is a key sector in the Egyptian economy, providing livelihoods for 57 % of the population and directly employing about 26% of the labour force. Farming is a vital source of exports and foreign exchange of export revenue. The Egyptian economy has proven to be resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic with a positive GDP growth rate in 2020. The delegation also plans to meet with Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, El-Sayed El-Quseir and Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat.
