The Social Fund for Development (SFD) started implementing a social strategy, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Swedish embassy, to empower women and overcome hindrances facing them.

The social initiatives aim to secure that women and men benefit from the development achieved in the country.

Launching the initiative on Monday, head of the government service sector Rafaat Abbas said that the strategy will work on maximizing the benefit of women from different development activities undertaken by the SFD.

Also, the strategy aims at training women to offer economic empowerment through proving training along funding small and medium-sized projects run and owned by women to raise their living standards, Abbas said on behalf of SFD Managing Director Soha Soliman.

The SFD was established by Presidential Decree 40/1991 as a socio-economic safety net to combat unemployment, alleviate poverty, improve living conditions and help attain comprehensive socio-economic development. 

SFD operates through a network of 31 regional offices covering all the governorates of Egypt with one-stop-shop (OSS) service complexes annexed to each to guarantee an efficient lending process and streamlined administrative procedures.

Source: MENA