The Ministry of Social Solidarity, PepsiCo Egypt, and CARE Egypt signed a partnership protocol to launch the three-year programme, She Feeds the World (SFtW).
The program aims to provide resources and good practices training to female farmers and their families to help increase crop yields and income in Beheira, Giza, Minya, and Beni Suef governorates. The programme is expected to benefit 390,000 female small-scale producers and their families, with investments of $3.7m.
SFtW will apply an integrated approach to address the primary barriers that female farmers face such as access to tools, inputs, financial services, agricultural training, and markets to sell their products.
It seeks to improve the nutritional wellbeing of 10,000 small-scale producer households with women of reproductive age and children under the age of two in the above governorates through promoting improved nutritional behaviour, water replenishment, private and public sector engagement, and improving access to reproductive resources. The programme also places emphasis on sustainable practices related to water use in agriculture.
CARE aims to integrate women’s empowerment activities to engage both women and men in addressing barriers of women’s entry to agricultural supply chains.
“This protocol is a true example of a partnership between the Ministry of Social Solidarity representing the public sector, CARE Egypt that represents civil society organisations, and the private sector represented by PepsiCo Egypt. We firmly believe that cooperation and integration is the best formula to achieving this programme’s great success,” said Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly.
“The Minister of Social Solidarity will also be supporting with a database that includes 30 million citizens, and SFtW will support with the “2 Kefaya” programmes launched by the ministry,” added Waly.
“This important programme is in line with our support for Egypt’s 2030 vision and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to achieve gender equality, especially in the agriculture sector – one of Egypt’s key national GDP contributors,” said CEO of PepsiCo Egypt Mohamed Shelbaya.
“Women represent half of society, and it is our role to join hands with the public sector and NGOs to be able to make a positive impact on their lives and transform their biggest challenges into opportunities. SFtW will enable higher crop yields and grower incomes, improved community and household nutrition, reduced environmental impacts, and enhanced gender equity across four governorates,” Shelbaya added.
“When female farmers boost their production and generate more income, they send their children to school, feed their families nutritious meals, keep their kids healthy over the course of their lives, expand their businesses, employ others, and build savings to help them weather tough times. This is why CARE has launched SFtW, an initiative to empower women farmers in developing countries to better support themselves, their families and their communities,” said Hazem Fahmy, CARE Egypt’s country director and acting CEO of CARE Egypt Foundation.
