USAID’s newly appointed Assistant Administrator for the Middle East, Mara Rudman, visited Cairo and Sohag from November 19-22. During her visit to Cairo, which fell during the lead-up to the first-round of Egypt’s historic parliamentary elections and fresh tensions and troubling unrest on Tahrir Square, Rudman met with some of USAID’s implementing partners working to support voter education, election monitoring and training of interested political parties to run transparent, effective campaigns. In addition, she discussed business and economic issues facing Egypt with members of the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council and representatives from the Egyptian business community. She also met with representatives from women’s groups including UN Women and the USAID-funded project Combating Violence against Women and Children which is increasing public awareness and improving services that protect and assist women and children who are victims of violence.
The centerpiece of the trip was the Assistant Administrator’s announcement of an $11 million short-term job creation project on November 21 while in Sohag. She reviewed a number of project sites there where labor-intensive works had established the first of an estimated 600,000 new or improved household water connections. Sohag is a key city along the Nile in Upper Egypt that has in the past been a flashpoint for rural community tensions and conflict, where she met with members from agricultural associations to discuss USAID support for helping to expand farmers’ access to markets and increase income for smallholder farmers. She also met with Gen. Eng. Mahmoud Nafee, Chairman of the Sohag Potable Water and Wastewater Company, and reviewed operations, gaining an appreciation for how the Company, with USAID support, has been able to maintain public services to the residents of Sohag in an environment of decreasing security, budget pressures and rising expectations. She then toured the Red Monastery, an excellent example of where USAID is working to conserve famous Coptic monasteries to help bring more tourists to Egypt.
Mara Rudman joined the Agency on September 26, having been confirmed by the United States Senate on September 13, 2011.
View USAID/Egypt’s Facebook page here for more photos from Mara Rudman’s visit.