Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat received Harjit S. Sajjan, Canada's Minister of International Development, in Cairo on Tuesday. The Canadian official was accompanied by Christopher MacLennan, Assistant Deputy Minister at Global Affairs Canada, and Louis Dumas, Ambassador of Canada to Egypt. Sherihan Bekhiet, Deputy Minister of International Cooperation to oversee cooperation with the Americas and Europe, also attended the meeting. Al-Mashat expressed deep appreciation for the strong partnership that exists between the governments of Canada and Egypt, which is grounded in common values and goals, as well as mutual respect and trust. The Minister also invited Canada's Minister of International Development to attend the second edition of the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum, which will take place on September 7-9 at the New Administrative Capital and will also include the participation of ministers of environment and finance from Africa to bolster climate action and unify the African voice on adaptation finance ahead of the climate conference COP27. She added that the Ministry of International Cooperation is making strenuous efforts to coordinate all development actors' actions through multi-stakeholder platforms on matters related to food security in order to mobilize blended financing through the wide scale participation of the private sector. This year's Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) with the Development Partners Groups (DPG) witnessed the launch of the NWFE Program (Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy), which discussed the list of prepared projects covering the water-food-energy nexus, in light of Egypt's COP27 presidency. The meeting also discussed the ongoing projects between the two sides in empowering women and catalyzing gender-smart finance. The Ministry of International Cooperation with the National Council for Women, World Economic Forum and the Private Sector, launched the "Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator" action plan. Egypt is the first country in Africa, Middle East and North Africa to launch this public – private collaboration model supported by the World Economic Forum. The ongoing portfolio of the Ministry of International Cooperation includes about 34 projects related to gender equality worth a total of $3.3bn. For his part, Hargit Sagan, Canada's Minister of International Development, underscored the strong partnership between Canada and Egypt, and expressed keenness to implement more programs to accelerate progress on sustainable development. For more than four decades, Canada has provided development finance of about CAD 1.2bn to combat poverty, enhance equality in access to educational opportunities, strengthen the process of technical support and build capacity in the areas of entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises to promote economic growth and sustainable development.
