H. E. the Minister of Local Development, Mr. Hesham el Sherif, along with UNIDO Representative, Giovanna Ceglie and Ambassador Said Hindam, Assistant Foreign Minister as well as the Governor of Sohag Mr. Ayman Abdelmoneim signed the Project “Inclusive and Sustainable Local Economic Development in Upper Egypt – Sohag” in attendance of the Ambassador of Switzerland H.E. Markus Leitner. The Minister highlighted “this UNIDO approach is exactly what Egypt needs, and we need to work together to upscale such initiatives”. Ambassador Leitner assured: “this is not our first project with UNIDO in Egypt and it will definitely not be our last”.

In line with the national priorities to create employment opportunities, the three year project, funded by the Government of Switzerland with a budget of around 1.2 Million USD will work on improving the lives of at least 1000 families in two districts of Sohag. On one axis the project will be supporting the start up of new business and job creation, increasing productivity and profitability of small businesses and farms and on another axis it will work closely with the local government to accelerate participatory planning of sectoral development.

The project builds on the successful scalable business models of the Hayat project in Minya and draws from its lessons leant, lead by UNIDO as an implementing partners. UNIDO has been supporting Egypt’s progress towards the achievement of social and economic growth, through the promotion of industrial development for employment generation and environmental sustainability. Leveraging its extensive experience worldwide, UNIDO responds to development challenges in Egypt by providing technical expertise and capacity-building measures to trigger a range of environmental, social and economic benefits, unleashing the potential for inclusive and sustainable industrial development.