Cairo, 21 January 2019 – In the framework of IOM’s Initiatives for Local Development of Egypt through the Support of Egyptians Abroad (ILDEA) project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (IADC), IOM hosted a strategic planning workshop for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA)’s line management and staff working in the Human and Community Development Central Sector. 

The two-day workshop was delivered by Dr. Martin Russell, a renowned international expert whose work is mainly focused on expatriate engagement and strategy development. The workshop comes as a follow up to a virtual training session for MSMEDA that took place on 23 December 2019, as part of the closing ceremony of ILDEA project. 

The workshop took the form of an interactive roundtable discussion where the stakeholders and the international expert discussed the current focus of the Human and Community Development Central Sector, identified ongoing and additional core pillars of the sector’s strategic plan and set out the frameworks and methodologies required to integrate such pillars within MSMEDA’s overall strategy. 

Dr. Russell shared insights on some of the key trends and soft-skills needed for strategic planning in expatriate engagement for local development, which is an integral component of the ILDEA project. The initiative involves Egyptian expatriates in Italy in the implementation of five local community development initiatives in Assiut. The community development projects were a fundamental part of ILDEA, to develop and promote institutional mechanisms for engaging Egyptian expatriates in local and national economic development. For more information on the projects, visit the following links: here & here. 

ILDEA is implemented by the IOM Egypt in partnership with the Ministry of State for Emigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs (MoSEEA) and MSMEDA.The project supports the realization of Egypt’s Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. It also falls in line with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, specifically the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Goal 8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, Goal 10 ‘Reduced Inequalities’, and Goal 17 ‘Partnership for the Goals’.

For more information, please contact Omar Awwad at IOM Egypt, Tel: +2 02 2736 5140/1 Email: oawwad@iom.int