“Decent Life” initiative draws new features for the Egyptian countryside: Minister of Planning

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in a discussion session entitled “A Decent Life: An Initiative as a Model for African Rural Transformation”, which was held during the activities of the fourth session of the Eighth Technical Committee of the African Union on Public Service, Local Governance, Urban Development, and Decentralization, which is hosting Egypt its meetings this year.During her speech; Dr. Hala El-Said said that Egypt’s hosting of the meetings of the Technical Committee of the African Union this year comes within the framework of Egypt’s pivotal role in strengthening regional and international cooperation mechanisms in all fields that enhance efforts to develop and prosper the African continent.
El-Said referred to the goals and axes of the Decent Life Initiative and the most prominent positive returns achieved at the national level, explaining that it is an unprecedented development project, as it is a comprehensive and integrated Egyptian development experience, and is one of the largest development experiences and initiatives in the history of Egypt, and indeed the world, whether in the size of its financial allocations or The number of beneficiaries, as it aims to change the developmental face of the Egyptian countryside for the better.
El-Said explained that “a decent life” aims to improve the living conditions of village residents by providing protection and social care, raising the level of infrastructure and urban services (drinking water and sanitation services, paved roads, and adequate housing), and improving the quality of human development services (education/health/services). Sports and youth/cultural services…), advancing development and increasing remunerative and decent employment opportunities by stimulating investment, providing soft loans for small projects, and expanding vocational training services.
El-Said added that the scope of the initiative expands to include more than 4,500 villages and their dependencies (all the population of the Egyptian countryside and half of the population of Egypt), bringing the percentage of beneficiaries of the project to about 58% of the total population of the Republic. It enhances the state’s efforts to localize sustainable development goals and achieve balanced regional development, which is one of the main pillars of Egypt’s Vision 2030.
El-Said stressed that the initiative for a decent life – as a humanitarian initiative – also contributes to achieving the objectives of the national strategy for human rights, whether about service and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, or the rights of women, children, people of determination, youth and other social groups.




The Minister of Planning and Economic Development indicated that the implementation of the Decent Life Initiative is based on the participatory approach, which the state adopts in formulating, implementing, and following up on all development plans and programs.
El-Said explained that a decent life is one of the most important international initiatives aimed at localizing sustainable development goals in rural communities because the goals of the initiative converge with many of the United Nations sustainable development goals and Africa Vision 2063.El-Said said that the success of the Decent Life initiative represents the starting point and the main motive behind the state’s keenness to transfer its experiences to the African brothers in light of the positive returns achieved by this pioneering initiative at the various development and economic levels.The Minister also indicated that the initiative’s contributions also extended to the areas of green transformation and climate change, due to the repercussions of this phenomenon on major economic sectors such as agriculture, water resources, energy, infrastructure, trade, and supply and supply chains, as well as the effects it witnesses on the public health sectors. Food security, education, and job opportunities, as the initiative, responded to these challenges by increasing the proportion of investments directed to green projects by an estimated 20% of the state’s investment plan for the fiscal year 2021/2022.Dr. Hala El-Said stated that the common development challenges and the limited ability of African countries to confront the risks arising from climate change individually are what inspired the Egyptian state to set the features of the “Decent Life for a climate resilient Africa” initiative, that will be launched on the sidelines of COP 27, where the initiative aims to enhance the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.The Minister also stressed the importance that this promising African initiative attaches to adopting best practices derived from success stories that have already been implemented on the continent, using the best scientific expertise, available human resources, and capabilities, taking into account the failure to adopt a unified development model that applies to all African countries of varying needs and capabilities. 
Dr. Hala El-Said indicated the aspiration of the Arab Republic of Egypt to support the brotherly African countries for this initiative, and their active participation in the rounds of consultations scheduled to be held on the initiative at the end of this September in Cairo, as these consultations will contribute to enhancing consensus and common understanding of the initiative.