Cairo, 18 June 2017 - IOM Egypt co-sponsored the United Nations Global Compact Network in Egypt (UNGCNE)’s annual Ramadan Iftar that took place on 15 June and was attended by 95 guests representing Egyptian businesses and development organizations.

The event brought together several UN and major private sector players in Egypt committed to the universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

The theme of the Iftar was “Egyptian Businesses for Peace” and aimed at linking the private sector with the UN organizations in Egypt, to jointly work on various topics of interest such as migration, gender equality, and employment. It specifically focused on promoting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 that calls for the promotion of just, peaceful and inclusive societies and SDG 17 that calls for revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development.

IOM Egypt’s Head of Office, Mr Amr Taha, addressed the guests to highlight that “IOM Egypt initiated the establishment of an Observatory for Human Mobility that compiles and analyses information on labour migration, training and educational mobility, as well as circular migration to provide reliable data and serve as a coordination hub to facilitate policy development between countries across the Mediterranean. Factual information and analysis will help highlight the true contributions and impact of migration to individuals and societies.” He added that Egypt bolsters some eight million migrants who remit over 20 billion dollars every year, which are as important to the economy as they are as a critical source of foreign currency in addition to being an untapped potential for business linkages. 

The event was supported by IOM Egypt, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and El Sewedy Group.

IOM Egypt is exploring potential collaboration with the private sector on various skill enhancement and employment programmes targeted at Egyptian youth as viable alternatives to irregular migration, as well as engaging expatriates for Egypt’s development.

In 2016, more than 3400 Egyptian youth benefited from IOM’s employment and employability interventions including job fairs, technical and entrepreneurship trainings, as well as soft skills enhancements programmes in six Egyptian governorates. IOM is capitalising on such achievements in cooperation with the Ministry of Manpower, Expatriate Affairs and CAPMAS to foster and promote labour migration as means of contributing to unemployment in Egypt as well fostering business linkages between Expatriates and their homeland.

Follow this Link to read the corresponding address of IOM Egypt's Head of Office, Mr. Amr Taha.

For further information, please contact Ms Zeinab Sabet at IOM Egypt. Tel: +202 27365140, Email: iomegypt@iom.int