A ceremony bringing together representatives of UN agencies, the
European Commission (EC), EU Member States and Egyptian Civil
Society Organizations (CSOs) took place Tuesday at the Egyptian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mark the launch in Egypt of the
Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI).

Carried out by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in
partnership with IOM, the International Labour Organization (ILO),
the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), this joint effort between the EC and UN seeks to
support civil society organizations and local authorities working
in the field of migration and development.

As part of the initiative, three new projects were launched to
bolster efforts to make migration work for development. These
include an initiative to partner German-Egyptian women
entrepreneurs with women entrepreneurs in Egypt to provide training
and advice, a project to transfer skills from Egyptian migrants
working in fish farms in Greece to help Egypt develop a similar
industry, and a project to develop the capacities of NGOs in Upper
Egypt involving Egyptian expatriates based in Cyprus.

The projects will be carried out in cooperation with Egypt's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will contribute to further
cooperation between Egypt and the European Union in the development
field, as well as set new objectives for future collaboration with
UN agencies and other civil society organizations.

For further information, please contact:

JoAnna Pollonais

IOM Cairo

Tel: +20 223580011

E-mail: "mailto:jpollonais@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">jpollonais@iom.int