A community kitchen for refugees and host community women

The project in brief

Implemented by

Refugees and Combating Human Trafficking Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt

Country

Arab Republic of Egypt

Duration

December 2018 - Ongoing

Description

A community kitchen located within the premises of the National Council for Women (NCW) was renovated and equipped to host refugee and Egyptian women.

Project aims 

1) To develop a safe, liable and sustainable income for a group of refugee and Egyptian vulnerable women.

2) To specifically have a holistic approach through facilitating access to day-care and a supporting work environment.

3) To engage with public sector and private sector entities in addressing refugees’ livelihood needs and build up a sustainable model.

Resources used 

• The significant support and cooperation of the National Council for Women to realize this project, combined with flexibility of the engaged actors (NCW, UNHCR, Mumm and UN Women);
• The great cooperation of UN Women in support of refugee and asylum-seeker women.

Partners

• National Council for Women (NCW)
• Mumm - Private sector social enterprise
• UNHCR
• UN Women

Challenges and how they were overcome

The governance model and the legal reference for a public-private partnership was not clear and the NCW (as a change agent) has played a pivotal role in the successful operationalization of the kitchen.

Challenges were overcome through a cooperative approach among partners and as a result of the strong commitment and political will of the NCW.

How the project meets the GCR Objectives

Objective 1: Ease the pressures on host countries

Objective 2: Enhance refugee self-reliance

In Egypt, the food sector, especially home-based services, is one of the sectors that is safe, viable and accommodative to many refugee and asylum-seeker women to work in. Egypt’s National Council of Women (NCW), UNHCR and UN Women have worked together to set-up a partnership between private and public sector actors to establish a kitchen in one of the refugee-hosting areas in Cairo at the benefit of both, refugee and Egyptian women. To this end, a kitchen was renovated and equipped in the premises of the NCW. A private sector social enterprise (Mumm), that is specialized in high-quality home-based food, was contracted to develop a business model and to set up a management structure through which the kitchen can operate as a production and training facility. Moreover, a project’s committee including all partners (NCW, UNHCR, UN Women, Mumm as well as some refugee-based community associations) was established for the management of the project. The committee worked collectively on the project’s governance model and requirements to have the kitchen operational. Currently, 12-16 refugee and Egyptian female cooks are developing menus for the official opening of the kitchen in January 2020.

Next steps 

The project will be managed by Mumm for the coming 5 years and will be regularly monitored by UNHCR and UN Women. UNHCR, UN WOMEN and Mumm are working on outreach, recruitment and liabilities for the Egyptian, refugee and asylum-seeker cooks’ work conditions. The place is to be operating under the good will of this good-will partnership and under the support of the government of Egypt.