The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity have launched an economic empowerment project.
The project, ‘Egypt Youth Employment: Economic Empowerment’, aims to enhance access for Egyptian youths and women to appropriate jobs with sustainable wages.
Egypt’s unemployment rate rose to a near two-year high in second quarter 2020, hitting 9.6 percent as the Covid-19 pandemic hit businesses, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).
CAPMAS is the official statistical agency of Egypt that collects, processes, analyses, and disseminates statistical data and conducts the census.
The jobless count in the country stood at 7.5 percent in the same quarter of 2019 and was at 7.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020 before rising to 9.2 percent in April 2020 as the government’s precautionary measures to counter the spread of the virus came into effect.
The aforementioned project, funded by the Norwegian government, is part of the Fostering Opportunities in Rural Southern Areas (FORSA), which mainly targets working age members of needy households.
Social Solidarity Minister, Niveen El-Qabbaj, Director of the ILO office in Cairo, Eric Oechslin, and Norwegian Ambassador to Egypt, Lene Lind, attended the signing ceremony of the project.
The programme, according to the project director, Nashwa Belal, seeks to enhance the capabilities of partner institutions and civil society organisations in fields related to youth and women empowerment.
El-Qabbaj said women’s participation in the labour market certainly helps improve the life conditions of families financially and culturally.
‘We have included economic empowerment in all of our programmes, including in social protection for informal employment, the national programme for family development, and the presidential programme Hayah Karima (decent life)’, the minister said.
According to her, the country aims to achieve noticeable progress in local development.
Source: Ahram Online
Photo source: Enterprise
