The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development has long focused on helping marginalized people throughout Egypt build dignified, productive lives. With its founding family originally from Upper Egypt, and its many years of engaging in philanthropy there, the foundation understands all too well that improving livelihoods in the region is uniquely challenging.

More than half of Upper Egypt’s population lives on less than $1 per day. Farming is the primary source of livelihood, yet it rarely generates sufficient income for families — or even enough food. Nearly 40 percent of the people in Upper Egypt’s rural communities lack access to enough food to stay healthy.

"Agriculture is a very significant economic sector in Upper Egypt, and we see it as a huge opportunity to make a difference in poverty and food security," says Noura Selim, the foundation’s executive director. "It links to the core of what we do — economic empowerment."

The foundation knows the path to progress will have to navigate myriad challenges. The region's farmers are often unaware of higher-productivity farming practices, or cannot afford the capital purchases required to adopt them. They have limited access to markets for selling their crops, and have few opportunities for off-farm work to supplement their farming income, given the region’s difficult labor market.

Historically, many of the region’s initiatives to alleviate rural poverty, such as universal food subsidies, have fallen short — often because they were too top-down and did not sufficiently address this constellation of needs and constraints. In 2012, when the foundation learned of a compelling new program that would introduce an array of agriculture solutions based on a deep understanding of the communities’ needs, it seized the opportunity.

The program, called the Sustainable Agricultural Development Program (SADP), was part of the newly launched Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID). ENID is a multi-stakeholder partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other local and international donors — under the umbrella of the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation — which aims to reduce poverty in Upper Egypt. SADP’s goals were to create income-generating opportunities and improve food security for people in the rural communities of Upper Egypt.

When the ENID team approached the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development about partnering, SADP stood out to the foundation for its bold approach: identifying innovative agricultural and off-farm practices in other geographies; adapting and piloting the practices in Upper Egypt (informed by a strong understanding of local community needs and network of experts); prioritizing rigorous measurement and evaluation to identify the most effective practices; and scaling those practices broadly, using local partnerships and evidence-based advocacy.

"SADP is largely a learning initiative, with various well-designed pilots and continuous publication of results," explains the foundation’s executive director, Selim. "That was one of the reasons we wanted to be involved with SADP from the beginning."

In 2012, the foundation committed $1.3m to phase I of SADP’s work and was its primary donor. In addition to capital, the foundation brought its expertise in economic empowerment and agriculture to the program.

"Our relationship with the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development is truly a strategic partnership," says SADP director and initiator Dr Dyaa Abdou. "They have been involved every step of the way."

Phase I focused on Qena, one of the poorest governorates in Upper Egypt. There, SADP piloted six agricultural practices, from milk processing to farmer field schools. Across 25 villages, SADP trained over 3,000 individuals — surpassing its pilot participation targets — and created 900 job opportunities in sustainable agriculture.

NGOs and government entities are now adopting some of the successful phase I practices, including integrated fish farms and agricultural waste recycling, across Upper Egypt. Building on these strong results, the foundation has committed an additional $1.5m to support SADP's work through 2021, with a focus on deepening its efforts in Qena and piloting new practices.

SADP, in close partnership with the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, uses a four-step approach to address poverty, unemployment, and hunger in Upper Egypt. 

1. Understand community needs in Upper Egypt. Working with experts in different fields from research centers and universities across Egypt, SADP visits villages in its target Upper Egypt communities, to investigate primary crops and yields, farming practices, environmental factors (such as climate and topography), and water and resource accessibility.

They survey residents, who help identify the most critical gaps in the area’s agriculture. They also meet with local Community Development Associations to learn which types of agricultural practices and income-generating activities would be most relevant.

Through this process, the team learns which parts of the crop-specific agricultural "value chains" — which span from inputs (including seed and fertilizer), to production and harvesting, to marketing and distribution — require the most work. The foundation supports SADP in conducting the needs assessment, sharing experiences and lessons from its other programs in Upper Egypt, and providing technical expertise on economic empowerment and agriculture.

2. Identify best practices that fit the community’s context. SADP looks for successful practices that match the needs of its target Upper Egypt communities. It gathers secondary information from its network of experts and taps its collective knowledge of effective agricultural methods used elsewhere in the world. Together with the foundation, the group looks for innovative practices related not only to core farm functions but also to off-farm activities, such as beekeeping. They prioritize approaches that help create integrated value chains — for example, by linking farmers to markets.

They also search across geographies with similar characteristics to Upper Egypt (such as primary crops and environments), which has taken them to other regions in Egypt and further afield to India and Bangladesh.

3. Pilot practices in Upper Egypt and evaluate their effectiveness. SADP and its network of experts customize the promising practices from other geographies to the local context in Upper Egypt. They start small — piloting each new approach, conducting feasibility studies, and adjusting practices as needed.

SADP runs some pilots on its own and enlists NGO and government partners in others. The objective is to determine if the practices are successful and replicable before scaling them across Egypt. Thus, SADP invests heavily in pilot measurement and evaluation. It establishes clear objectives with detailed milestones (such as the number of individuals trained and jobs created) and prepares quarterly progress reports that document achievements, lessons learned, and future plans.

The foundation monitors SADP's progress, meets regularly with SADP's leadership, conducts field visits to understand pilot development, and supports evaluation efforts.

4. Scale effective practices through partnerships, advocacy, and knowledge sharing. SADP's goal is to identify the most effective practices across its various pilots and engage with local partners to implement them across Egypt. "SADP is not about delivering services directly ourselves," says Abdou. "It’s about building the right model, which can be taken on by others."

SADP selects local NGOs with goals and capabilities that align with its own, such as empowering women, supporting their livelihoods, and engaging the community. It then trains these NGOs, and in some cases the local government, on how to implement and evaluate a given practice. Where the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development has relevant networks, it helps foster these connections.

These partnerships are mutually beneficial. The NGOs and local government share their deep knowledge of the local villages’ agricultural resources and challenges. SADP provides its local partners with technical assistance and capacity-building support.

"When we first started working in Upper Egypt, none of the farmers knew what agricultural recycling was, and farmers used to burn their waste," says Nahed Yousry, social empowerment director at the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development. "Now, we have brought our agricultural recycling program to 10 to 12 villages in Qena governorate."

Beyond direct local partnerships, SADP actively shares what it learns about effective practices, so other organizations can adopt and scale these approaches. It engages in evidence-based advocacy efforts, publishing policy briefs and case studies, and hosting and participating in conferences to influence the efforts of government and other NGOs. The foundation is heavily engaged in these efforts.

"We work to help spread the learning, pilot the project in different settings, and enlist others to take on these impactful interventions in agriculture," says the foundation’s executive director, Selim.

At time of writing, SADP had surpassed its phase I pilot targets. As mentioned earlier, SADP and its partners trained over 3,000 people across 25 Qena villages on different agricultural practices — well above its target of 890.

SADP also created 900 job opportunities in sustainable agriculture through these pilots, almost double its target of 470. Nearly half of the jobs were created for women, who traditionally have not been able to work outside of their homes.

"Once these women have an opportunity to work, they can contribute to making money for their families and also feel more empowered as individuals," says Ali Maher, SADP’s field coordinator in ENID's Qena office.

While SADP saw encouraging results across each of its six pilot projects in phase I, the organization believes the agricultural waste recycling program, integrated fish farms, and farmer field schools are its most successful efforts. Those three projects realized their participation targets and improved livelihoods, leading the government and other NGOs to replicate their approach and thereby scale their reach. 

SADP’s efforts have also started to influence the government more broadly. "After our last conference, we heard from many governorates from across Egypt that are interested in taking up our projects," says Dr. Waleed Brekaa, regional manager of ENID’s Qena office. "They were most impressed by the strong body of evidence we collected during phase I."

By working closely with government, SADP is embedding its practices in existing systems and contributing to long-term change.

Not all the phase I pilots have performed as compellingly, though. For example, the roof gardening project, while successful in urban areas, did not show strong results in rural settings. Families in rural areas saw less of a need for the roof garden, given that their larger plots of land allowed them to farm much of their own food.

"The roof gardening at the village level did not work very well," concedes Abdou. "We tried very hard, and while we have seen some results, we still have work to do."

Based on these initial pilot learnings, SADP is starting to shift to growing Azolla algae on the rooftop gardens, as the crop is in demand for animal feed.

The varied results underscore the merit of SADP's disciplined approach—investing heavily at the pilot stage in gauging a practice’s potential in the region, before deciding whether and how to scale.

Progress in SADP's phase I efforts, more generally, was often hard-won. The team had to navigate the many rules and regulations that govern Egypt’s agricultural sector. One roadblock: it took longer than expected to acquire commercial licenses to process and produce milk.

Finding the right partner NGOs was also challenging. Some partnerships did not succeed, and SADP had to invest in developing a more extensive questionnaire to identify NGOs that aligned with SADP's objectives (notably, community engagement and women’s empowerment) and had the right capabilities to conduct the work (including reporting and financial accounting systems). SADP is using these learnings to inform its subsequent efforts.

Financial sustainability has also been an ongoing concern for SADP and the other ENID programs. To enhance its funding sources for all its programs, ENID created the El Nidaa Foundation in 2016. El Nidaa raises funds from a range of donors, including the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, Coca-Cola, and local Egyptian philanthropies. The goal is for El Nidaa to continue supporting ENID’s investments, even after UNDP and other foreign donors end their funding.

In 2017, the foundation committed $800,000 for phase II, which will extend through 2021. "The second phase aims at ensuring the sustainability and scalability of the successful practices, with an intention to cover further stages of the value chain," says SADP's Abdou.

With this support, SADP expects to pilot eight practices in phase II that train at least another 1,400 people and provide employment to 1,000 job seekers. These pilots range from helping to boost beekeeping and honey production, to training rural women on effective goat-raising practices.

In November 2018, the Foundation also agreed to invest $730,000 through El Nidaa Foundation to support a significant Qena-based SADP project focused on sericulture — silkworm rearing and natural silk production. The project runs through 2021 and focuses on the entire sericulture value chain, including the cultivation of mulberry trees (whose leaves are a vital food source for silkworms), silkworm rearing, and silk reeling and weaving.

The project aims to provide 1,500 training opportunities and 835 jobs (targeting 37 percent women) in Qena. SADP believes the project has a high potential for increasing export earnings.

The foundation and SADP are already thinking about partnering beyond 2021, to further identify potential practices and continue expanding partnerships with NGOs and local government agencies in Upper Egypt.