Deputy Minister of Planning meets with a delegation from the World Bank to discuss the status of the report on the demographic returns to Egypt

Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, met with the World Bank delegation headed by Rekha Menon, Director of Health Affairs, Nutrition, and Population in the Middle East and North Africa, to discuss the state of health affairs in Egypt and the expansion of its work in the Middle East and North Africa region.


 The meeting also sought to discuss the status of the World Bank's report on the demographic returns to Egypt, the delegation's proposal to participate in issuing the report, and a review of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family.

 The meeting was attended by Dr. Jamil Helmy, Assistant Minister for Sustainable Development Plan Follow-up Affairs, Dr. Amira Tawadros, Director of the Demographic Center in Cairo, Dr. Mona Essam, Head of the Sustainable Development Unit, Dr. Reham Rizk, Director of the Social and Development Planning Unit at the Ministry, and Irina Postolovska, Health Economist.

During the meeting, Dr. Ahmed Kamali stressed the importance of demographic and health surveys to obtain the required indicators and data, referring to the surveys conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMS), explaining the results of the demographic and health surveys are expected to appear next May.


Kamali stressed the Egyptian government's interest and focus on many important issues raised in the bank's report, such as the national project for the development of the Egyptian family, women's economic empowerment, as well as dropping out of education, and productive job opportunities.

Kamali explained that Egypt has a large workforce, pointing to the need to raise the level of skills among workers, stressing that the second phase of the economic reform program represented in structural reforms focuses on technical education and skills and the provision of training to support skills.


Kamali pointed to the importance of competitiveness, which is not related to quantity but to the quality of education to create more productive employment.
Kamali explained that improving workers' skills reflect the availability of decent job opportunities, and Kamali continued that investing in human capital contributes to reducing childbearing rates.

Kamali explained the importance of infrastructure, to attract private investments, stressing the need for adequate skills and productive employment.


For his part, Dr. Jamil Helmy spoke about the priorities within the investment plan for the fiscal year 2022/2023, pointing to the settlement of sustainable development goals at the governorate level, and studying the gaps in several areas such as health and education in the governorates of Egypt to achieve development.
Helmy explained that approximately 51% of the investments were allocated to the development of the human element, with a focus on the health and education aspects, explaining the assertion of Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, that this year will be the year of "developing the human element: building the person."


Helmy stressed the focus on paying attention to the health sector as one of the priorities, stressing the work to accelerate the implementation of the comprehensive health insurance system to cover different parts of Egypt.


Dr. Amira Tawadros talked about the national project for the development of the Egyptian family, explaining that the project seeks to improve the quality of life of the Egyptian citizen and achieve prosperity for him by starting with the Egyptian family as the nucleus of any society.


Tawadros added that the national project for the development of the Egyptian family is based on five main pillars represented in the economic empowerment of women and the service axis of reproductive health services.




Tawadros indicated that an electronic platform for the Egyptian family will be established, be the first of its kind that represents a unified system, as well as enabling the Egyptian family to obtain and benefit from the services provided by the state, as well as building a system to follow up the population census through that platform, to connect to databases such as the private database It will also be linked to the marriage monitoring system so that the family can be followed up from its inception.


 These platforms will also be linked to the social protection system in Egypt, such as Takaful and Karama, adding that the fifth axis revolves around the legislative aspect.