Department

Public Policy Hub

Description or Abstract

Dead crops, fruitless trees, and barren lands. Such is the print left by the climate catastrophe in Egypt. As these impacts increase in intensity and frequency, Egypt lies between a rock and a hard place. The global economic and food crisis, internal demographic pressures, and a cash-strapped financial state coupled with the climate crisis have set the government’s teeth on edge. Adapting to climate change impacts on agriculture to feed over 100 million citizens and protect the livelihoods of over 25 million actors in the agro-food industry has become one of the most pressing policy issues of the government. National policies and efforts have long been engaged and focused on agricultural development, water resources management, and irrigation. Despite these efforts, ongoing challenges have highlighted that strategies and policies have had limited progress toward effective and efficient implementation. Research and consultations conducted under this policy paper revealed an implementation gap in the agricultural sector. The Egyptian dilemma in adapting to climate change in agriculture is neither a science nor a planning-based challenge but that of effective implementation. While there is a considerable progress in agricultural policies and strategies and ongoing efforts to address water, food, and development challenges, the actual implementation of climate change adaptation strategies has yet to reach Egypt’s farmers and workers in the agro-food industry. At the national level, limited capacities, financing, and coordination have hindered the impacts of efforts to cover existing and prioritize future projects. This policy paper provides three policy alternatives as possible options to accelerate the implementation of strategies: a) agricultural technological innovation through technology transfer; b) a specialized climate-finance resource mobilization unit; and c) economic/market and structural policy options on the agro-food chain.

Keywords

Agriculture; Climate Change; Adaptation

Credits/Acknowledgments

This paper is published by The Public Policy Hub - GAPP School (AUC), established in 2017:

Laila El Baradei (PI), Shahjahan Bhuiyan (Co-PI), Mohamed Kadry (Program Manager), Waleed El-Deeb (Senior Specialist), Ghadeer Ibrahim (Senior Outreach and Communications Specialist).

Faculty Advisor

Sherwat Elwan

Content Type

Other

Extent

49 p.

Language

eng|| ara

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