Egypt | World Food Programme

With a growing population of more than 106 million, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, and an influential geopolitical actor in the region.

While maintaining positive economic growth, Egypt faces a complex economic landscape, with challenges related to inflation, currency devaluation and the impact of global and regional crises.

According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Egypt sustains a moderate level of food insecurity, ranking 57 out of 125 countries. Food affordability, quality and safety remain challenges due to a reliance on global markets for more than half of its staples.

Malnutrition is another public health concern, with a 21 percent stunting rate, and 5 percent of children aged under 5 years underweight.

WFP implements an integrated rural development approach to complement the government’s Haya Kareema (Decent Life) initiative, which aims to improve the quality of life in the poorest rural communities within the framework of Egypt Vision 2030. Activities include school meals, nutrition prevention and treatment, economic empowerment, climate-smart agriculture, irrigation and capacity strengthening.

What the World Food Programme is doing in Egypt

Support to refugees and crisis-affected populations: The Government of Egypt has reported receiving more than 500,000 Sudanese fleeing the Sudan crisis that erupted in April 2023. In total, Egypt hosts more than 725,000 registered refugees. WFP supports refugees and crisis-affected populations through monthly cash assistance, so they can buy food and other basic needs. Additionally, to foster long-term self-reliance and social cohesion, WFP offers a skills development and vocational training programme to refugees, Sudanese crisis-affected populations and Egyptians within host communities. WFP provides pregnant and breastfeeding refugee women with monthly cash, conditional on regular health check-ups, as well as nutrition-awareness sessions.
Youth and women's empowerment: WFP provides young men and women with vocational training and skills development, to increase their employability and access to decent jobs and livelihoods. Training focuses on high-demand employment sectors including renewable energy, agribusiness and hospitality. WFP provides training to women and provides them with loans to start businesses that can support their families and children. WFP's She Can programme has enabled women to increase households incomes by 30–50 percent.
Resilience building: WFP strengthens rural farmers’ resilience to the effects of climate change, while also improving their agriculture and irrigation practices. Measures include introducing solar panels and providing in-kind loans to help women farmers grow a greater variety of crops.
School feeding: WFP complements the national school-meals programme by providing fortified, in-school snacks to children in community schools, and cash assistance to their families – conditional on school attendance. WFP also supports the integration of technology in teaching and learning, including internet connectivity.
Nutrition: WFP believes in healthy beginnings for all. WFP complements Egypt's nutrition-sensitive social protection system, giving extra care to pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under 2. Under the “First 1,000 Days" nutrition programme, WFP and the Government provide cash top-ups to pregnant and nursing women, to help secure their essential nutrition. WFP also provides technical support to national nutrition activities and awareness-raising campaigns.
Country capacity strengthening: By building bridges of knowledge, fostering cooperation between nations, and sharing solutions, WFP seeks to galvanize sustainable development. WFP provides technical and capacity-strengthening support to national institutions and governmental bodies, improving national capacities to adopt technological solutions for the collection, management and analysis of information; strengthening supply chains; and improving regional and global knowledge-sharing for development.