Fruitful partnerships
Egypt bid farewell to USAID's outgoing director in Alexandria, where the agency's projects have helped to change the city's face. Sherine Nasr reports
After more than 23 years of work, the city of Alexandria finally stopped last week the discharge of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. "The closure of the Qait Bey sewage outfall, which is one of the last two sites where raw sewage was being discharged into the sea, is a remarkable achievement," said Governor Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub at a ceremony attended by government officials and representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded the project.
Willard Pearson, USAID's director in Egypt, was bid farewell at the same event. Pearson is soon to assume new responsibilities as senior advisor to USAID in Washington DC.
"I will have the opportunity of engaging in matters concerning Egypt, which we consider to be one of our most important programmes in the region," Pearson said.
Through close cooperation between official and non-governmental bodies, on the one hand, and USAID on the other, Alexandria has become what it is now. The termination of sewage discharge into the Mediterranean was perhaps one of the most difficult and long-standing problems the governorate had to deal with. Alexandria is now in a position to comply with the terms of the Mediterranean Sea Protocol, El-Mahgoub said.
USAID has contributed $538 million to Alexandria in the waste water sector. Before the first phase of Alexandria Waste Water System Expansion started in 1980, raw sewage was being discharged into the Mediterranean at 15 sewage outfalls. Upon the completion of Phase I in 1994, 13 of those outfalls were closed at a total cost of $425 million.
Under the Egypt Utilities Management Programme, USAID is providing $97 million in assistance to the Alexandria General Water Authority (AWGA) in areas including the development of a water masterplan for the governorate and strengthening AWGA's technical, institutional and financial capacities. Some other $113 million are being provided to help the Alexandria General Authority for Sanitary Drainage to improve its management capacity, as well as finance the construction of additional treatment capacity at the governorate's east and west treatment plants.
"With $134 million in electrical power and $10 million in telecommunications projects, USAID contributions to infrastructure utilities in Alexandria have totalled $779 million," Pearson said.
In addition to infrastructure projects, Alexandria has managed to make use of USAID funds in promoting different sectors, including its small and medium-sized enterprises and its educational system.
Through cooperation with USAID, the Alexandria Businessmen's Association (ABA) has managed to implement a number of lending programmes to small businesses in Alexandria and Kafr Al-Sheikh. "We have extended some 165,000 loans valued at about LE463 million to nearly 47,000 borrowers, most of whom had no previous access to loans," said ABA Chairman Mohamed Ragab. "It has become a model to be replicated in other Egyptian cities."
The ABA has also launched a Poverty Lending Programme to provide small-sized loans to micro businesses, mainly to female- headed households in the poorer areas.
Other USAID projects provide firm and sector-level support to businesses located in and around Alexandria. According to Pearson, these projects include the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), which provides volunteer executives to Alexandria- based firms, the Agriculture-led Export Businesses (ALEB) and the Agricultural Technology Utilisation and Transfer (ATUT), which provides technical assistance to food processors, growers and exporters of high- value horticulture crops.
Under the Public and Private Commodity Import Programme (CIP) adopted in Alexandria, investments totaling some $588 million have been financed in different sectors. The majority of those investments have been made in the new industrial cities of Borg Al- Arab and Al-Ameriyah, where private sector Egyptian businesses have imported American equipment for food processing, paint production, paper processing and other industrial uses.
"Since 1986, more than 220 private sector Alexandria importers have accessed $372 million in CIP funds to finance over 1,000 transactions," Pearson said. "Additionally, public sector entities in Alexandria used $216 million in CIP financing from 1975 to 1997."
In the education sector, the ABA and the Ministry of Education have adopted a "School for Work Programme" with the aim of developing a system of technical secondary education that will produce technical workers with skills and competencies relevant to the needs of the market.
Alexandria is the first governorate to adopt an Education Reform Programme aimed at improving the quality of education through decentralised school management and decision-making and improved school performance. Implemented in 30 schools, the major instrument for promoting improvement is in-country, and US-based technical training, provided so far to more than 2,000 teachers, school administrators and middle and senior education leaders.
Speaking exclusively to Al- Ahram Weekly, Pearson said that under the Middle East Partnership Initiative, several areas will be focussed upon that include an increased emphasis on education, promoting economic growth especially for small and medium-sized enterprises and empowering civil society through open and active governance and democracy. "These are the areas that will be the core of our relationship for years to come," Pearson said.
Pearson believes that USAID's $600 million programme for this year is very large and many good results have been achieved. "However, we are not doing a good job in communicating what has been done to the people. This is one area where we need to do a better job," he said.
Pearson also indicated that USAID's programmes' ultimate goal in Egypt is to change policies. "We do that in different ways: Some programmes are designed to change government policies, others are designed to help Egyptian businesses have easier access to funds or equipment," he said.
The question of governance, Pearson said, is a broad policy area under the Middle East Partnership Initiative. "The government of Egypt, I think, is committed to do more on this area. To take steps to allow more political participation, to open up civil society and to give people more responsibility to work on institutions that affect their lives," Pearson said.
Pearson, who will be leaving Cairo soon, is convinced that even when government officials and USAID do not entirely agree on priorities and programmes, "our discussions have been open and honest and they have always been characterised by a desire to give Egyptians the maximum benefit from what it is we're trying to do."
