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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Focus Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A change in emphasis?
By Shaimaa Labib
USAID programmes, initiated by the United States Agency for International Development, for long active in supporting Egypt's economic reform programme, have over the past three years placed an increasing emphasis on funding environmental preservation programmes and NGOs involved in community services. Health, family planning and education are all domains that are currently receiving funding.
In an attempt to review the activities of USAID-funded projects in the Delta, American Embassy Minister Counsellor Rino Harnish visited the region to meet with beneficiaries of USAID programmes.
"One aspect of bilateral relations is the USAID-funded Small and Micro Enterprise Development programme, (SMED), which provides small businessmen with an opportunity to produce new products as well as hire new workers, thus alleviating the unemployment problem," Harnish said.
SMED, a $44 million programme, supports non-profit organisations to act as intermediaries, in cooperation with local banks, in the creation of credit delivery systems for small and micro-enterprises (SMEs).
"Loans, ranging from LE 500 to LE 25,000 are targeted to SMEs as a means of creating new job opportunities in rural areas. These loans are intended to benefit unemployed youth and female-headed households," says Osama Sultan, member in the Sharqiya Businessmen's Association for Community Development.
The association, Sultan says, works closely with USAID in providing managerial and technical assistance to these projects as well as monitoring their activities.
According to Harnish "another aspect of bilateral relations is in the field of educational programmes financed by USAID which target inhabitants of rural areas and provide technical assistance and grants to universities".
One such project, Learn Link, finances the construction of one-room schools in rural and poor areas targeting young girls who have failed to enroll in schools at an appropriate age. In these schools the emphasis is on promoting literacy and on providing vocational training.
"University Linkages, another USAID-funded project, has provided a grant to Mansoura University to develop computer software in cooperation with Howard University in Washington," Harnish revealed.
"USAID is closely working with the public and private sector as well as NGOs to expand and improve family planning services. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population, public sector family planning clinics are being upgraded and awarded a gold star when quality standards are met and maintained," said Safaa Abdel-Fattah, pediatric consultant for the Healthy Mother/ Healthy Child programme, which has $59.5 million from USAID since February 1995.
