WORKING MEETINGS WITH THE EGYPTIAN MINISTER

OF AGRICULTURE AND THE NEW FOCAL POINT

On the sidelines of the National workshop "Agricultural Cooperatives: Strategies and policies", Dr. Tahani ABDELHAKIM, CIHEAM-IAMM professor/researcher and Egypt Expert for the ENPARD South Support Programme, met with the new Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Egypt, His Excellency, Dr. Abdelmoneim ELBANA, as well as Ministry officials, including the new focal point for Egypt, Dr. Hisham ALLAM, supervisor of the external relations Department of the Ministry of agriculture and land reclamation.

During the two preliminary discussions prior to the meeting with the new Minister, Dr. Tahani ABDELHAKIM presented to Mr. Hisham ALLAM and Mr. Saad Nassar, the Minister's adviser, the ENPARD South initiative, the objectives of the support programme and the activities implemented since the launch of the programme in Egypt. Subsequently, the schedule of activities for the coming months was discussed in preparation of the meeting with the Minister and to ensure that future work responds well to the new Ministry’s priorities.

During the meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation organised on May 11, 2017 within the Ministry, several points were discussed and various commitments were made:

The study on the reform of the Egyptian agricultural extension system was presented to the new Minister, explaining precisely the approach adopted and embodied in the results of the study (three workshops, discussions with representatives of all the groups of stakeholders, drafting of various scenarios and validation of the chosen scenario);

Following this presentation, the Minister decided to form a "task group" which will be in charge of preparing a note for donors, based on the results of the work undertaken under the support programme, to notify the Ministry's willingness to implement this reform and to explore the possibility of mobilising funds in the framework of a cooperation project;

As part of the last two ENPARD workshops on agricultural cooperatives, the Minister announced the creation of a working group which will be backed by the ENPARD support programme team in the drafting of a strategic document on agricultural cooperatives. The purpose of this note will be to provide a framework and a direction for the next steps of the reform of the Egyptian cooperative system;

For the further activities and working meetings, the Minister proposed to apply the same approach used for the reform of the extension system to analyse the organisation of the value chains in Egypt and to formulate an action plan aiming at improving their functioning. To do this, a specific product will be identified by the Ministry as a case study with the underlying objectives of improving its production, increasing its export and the income of the farmers cultivating this product.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister reiterated Egypt's interest in the ENPARD South initiative and the activities implemented under the support program.

The results of the discussions held during the meeting were also shared by the Minister's office in the Egyptian press, as well as an update on the past and future activities of the ENPARD South support programme. These articles were published on: