The World Bank (WB) was conducting the Income Environment, Environment & Health Linkages in Rural Egypt project, with the overall objective of improving the quality of life of low-income groups in rural Damietta and Qena by reducing the burden of environmental degradation on their well-being and income.
To achieve this objective, there was a need to improve the investment opportunities to the government at the governorate and national levels in order to effectively curb environmental degradation.
WB awarded ECON Analysis AS, Center for International Climate and Environment in Oslo (CICERO), Chemonics Egypt, and Environics, the contract to provide several services to achieve this objective.
Activities included:
– Review of a previous study and available information on the cost of environmental degradation in Qena and Damietta, as well as a household survey conducted in two rural villages (2004).
– Conducting stratified surveys of farm households in 6 rural villages in Damietta and households in 10 rural villages in Qena.
– Assessing, analyzing and comparing data from surveys and available literature, as well as review and analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS).
– Identification of priority interventions and estimation of investment and operational costs.
Services included:
– Use of available or sampled data to update the cost of environmental degradation in Damietta and Qena. This was done with focus on the constraints of two priority areas, namely land degradation and solid waste in Damietta, and rural water, sanitation and hygiene practices, and indoor air pollution in Qena.
– Calculation of the cost/benefit (CB) or cost effectiveness (CE) of remedial actions of the two priorities so as to formulate several scenarios using a decrease of cost degradation as a base;
– Preparation of an investment plan that mitigate the costs of environmental degradation, with an appropriate enabling environment, for each of the two priority areas;
– Training of governorates on the investment plan preparation, and training the universities in Damietta and Qena on the methodologies; and
– Consultation of stakeholders to build consensus, dissemination of results at the governorate and national levels and drawing policy guidance for replication.
The services were detailed in the submitted report:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTUNITFESSD/Resources/1633731-1126192948163/1635107-1126193197915/Egypt_Summary_report.pdf