Purpose

More than half of the population of Greater Cairo lives in informal areas, which are often densely built and lack basic services, making living conditions difficult for inhabitants.

To support urgent and concrete measures, the European Union and the German Government have established a fund, made available in the form of grants, to improve the living conditions of the poor urban population living in four informal areas in Giza and Cairo Governorates. Grants are awarded to small-scale local initiative projects which improve the living conditions and upgrade physical, social and socio-economic infrastructure in selected informal urban areas in Greater Cairo. Youth, women and civil society organisations are being actively included in the planning, as well as in the implementation, operation and maintenance of the measures.

Objectives

The Informal Area Development Fund aims at improving environmental and socio-economic services and physical and social infrastructure in the four informal areas in both quality and quantity.

The Component targets especially youth and women and promotes their active participation in the development of informal areas.

The activities are based on the results of a participatory needs assessment of the four informal areas and involve the establishment of a fund made available in the form of grants to civil society and public authorities to implement measures to improve the livelihoods of those living in the four informal areas.