While developmental projects were carried out these last years under different services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation or other ministries and public authorities in Egypt, it was found that there was neither link nor contact between these projects, although they were acting for the same cause: rural poverty alleviation. The lacking communication forum or channel led to a very low flow of experience exchange and successful stories sharing. It was believed that some success stories and good practices, developed by certain projects, could serve as models or reference for other projects in solving similar problems.

In order to help the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation in finding a suitable solution for the above-mentioned situation and foster knowledge sharing and experience exchange between development projects, KariaNet suggested, in August 2005, an initiative to establish a national network whose main objective is to provide a communication forum for all development projects and initiatives that work in the field of rural poverty reduction, and particularly those financed by international donors. The initiative was presented to His Excellency, the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation through a concept note that described the initiative, its philosophy, goals and major activities. After the approval of His Excellency the Minister and back-up of the initiative, a Start-up Workshop was organised on 19 April 2006. Financially supported by KariaNet, the workshop gathered six (6) development projects financed by different international donors, considered as core founders of this pilot network. The network is coordinated and managed by a Facilitation and Coordination Unit, located in the Department of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.

The national network aims at achieving the following:

• Allow all members to have access to the experiences of other projects within the same country, which is expected to enhance the members' capacities.
• Develop the communication skills of all members for a better dialogue, which will allow them to take profit of the available information and experiences, along with enhancing their knowledge management and sharing capacities.
• Enhance learning of all members about previous experiences (lessons learned) in order to avoid replicating similar mistakes in the future.
• Facilitate the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as means of fostering knowledge sharing and experiences exchange between different parties.
• Provide decision-makers with sound information for them to support all initiatives that seek to intensify the use of ICTs, and which could improve service delivery in general.