The Event was attended by about 50 participants representing Egyptian Ministries, government bodies, the donor community and civil society. Representatives from the Greek Embassy in Cairo and the EC Delegation in Cairo were also present and addressed the participants in the opening session.
The aim of the Consultation Event was twofold: the first one was to discuss the findings of an Interim Report produced within the implementation of the Dialogue’s first component on household affordability assessment for water tariffs in Egypt. This Report, for the first time in Egypt, made use of household survey data and utility billing data in order to address the affordability issue.
The second aim of the Event was to launch the Dialogue’s second component on elaborating a sustainable Financing Strategy for the Egyptian Water Supply and Sanitation sector. The Event, besides presenting the Report’s findings to a wider circle of people, triggered discussion and received feedback from the participating stakeholders on the issue of affordability and cost recovery with regard to water tariffs that is currently a heavily-discussed issue in the country.
In parallel with the Consultation Event, bilateral meetings were organized with key national stakeholders in order to familiarize them further with the MED EUWI Dialogue’s context and to establish communication channels for the Dialogue’s next steps.