This report presents the findings of the evaluation of the Netherlands' development cooperation with Egypt. It is one of a series of three country evaluation studies carried out by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department. The other two cover the development cooperation with Bangladesh and Bolivia.

The main objective of the study was to assess the policy relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the bilateral aid programme for Egypt. The study covers some twenty years of development assistance, i.e. since Egypt was selected as a priority country in 1975 and up to 1996. During this period a total of Dfl. 960 million has been disbursed as programme aid and project aid. In view of the wide scope of Netherlands' aid to Egypt, activities have been grouped into five main clusters: programme aid, and project aid (including commodity import support) to main sectors, i.e. water management and drainage, agriculture and animal husbandry, drinking water and sanitation, and health and population. Separately, an assessment is made of aid to Fayoum Governorate, the concentration area of Netherlands' aid in Egypt.

The report comprises three volumes. Volume 1 contains the Main Findings and Summary. Volume 2 constitutes the Main Report, whilst Volume 3 is a detailed study of the support to water management and drainage. The comment of the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation is included in Volume 2.