WFP Egypt Country Programme

Description

The land settlement in upper Egypt aimed to support the settlement and socio-economic development of 2,800 landless farmers
and 1,200 graduates coming from Upper Egypt, settling in Wadi Saaida in Aswan Governorate, with the aim to increase agricultural production through the cultivation on newly reclaimed 20,000 feddans.

Services

NSCE was in charge of verifying the settlement process and more particularly the participation rate of women settlers and evaluating the institutional and cultural bottlenecks tied to their low participation. The methodology included gender desegregated analysis of the profile of settlers through the prior build up of a computer database with the basic settlers data extracted from over 5000 applicant files. The statistical results were substantiated by a number of focus groups and in depth interviews of settlers in Wadi Saida.

The mission was carried in close cooperation with the Ministry of Agricultural & Land Reclamation (MALR) Executive with regular consultations over the results which led to the facilitation of the final negotiation between WFP and MALR to reach a higher rate of female settlers and the formalization of the principle to register 20% of the land given to the farmer under the name of the wife. This meant a key breakthrough by systematically securing land assets for female settlers in the new lands and addressing long-term discriminatory practices towards women land ownership.