Egypt’s Planning Ministry reviews a report measuring the impact of the “Decent Life" presidential initiative

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development issued a mid-term report to monitor and evaluate the impact of the "A Decent Life" presidential initiative. Decent Life is an initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in 2019 to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the most vulnerable groups in Egypt.

Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development affirmed that the Egyptian state works to reduce development gaps between governorates by focusing on developing the villages most in need. She noted that real development occurs at the governorate level and not in a centralized manner and that each governorate has a different competitive advantage, and has different resources. She stressed that spatial justice is one of the goals of the state plan.

 

 

The Minister of Planning and Economic Development referred to the quality of life index, which is a composite index that aims to create a quantitative tool that helps measure the impact of the efforts undertaken by the state in the field of developing rural communities within the framework of the "A Decent Life" initiative, and its implications for the state of sustainable development.

El-Said explained that this is done by comparing performance indicators before and after those efforts. She stressed that among the strategic results of the initiative in the villages of the first stage, the quality of life index improved by about 18 percentage points, and the average poverty rate decreased by about 14 points.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development pointed out that the first phase of the "Decent Life" initiative, which started in July 2019 until the end of 2020, included 143 villages in 46 centers in 11 governorates, and the number of beneficiaries reached 1.8 million.

 

 

On the appropriations directed to the villages of the first phase; The report indicated that the total appropriations amounted to EGP 5.5 billion directed to 1901 interventions that included EGP 3.3 billion in the fiscal year 2019/20, and EGP 2.2 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About assessing the impact of the initiative on localizing the sustainable development goals; The report issued by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development indicated that for the third goal of the sustainable development goals related to good health and well-being, there is an improvement in the rate of health services coverage by about 24 percentage points.

 

 

El-Said confirmed that 255 medical convoys, 1,335 surgeries, provisions of 538 prosthetic devices, 5420 eye operations, provision of 16,500 medical glasses, completed the establishment and development of 12 health units, and 56 health units were to be completed by 2020/21.

 

 

As for the fourth goal (quality education); The report indicated an improvement in the rate of educational services coverage by about 12 percentage points, as educational services were provided in 3 deprived villages, the development of 7 nurseries was completed. Furthermore, 45 schools were established or developed, including 717 classrooms were completed. 127 schools include 1493 semesters during 2020/21.

Regarding the sixth goal (clean water and sanitation), sanitation coverage improved by about 46 percentage points. This was achieved through the installation of 706 domestic sewage tanks, 1559 domestic sewage connections, and water networks of 7 km long.

Also, 1637 household connections have been installed, 49 groundwater wells have been constructed and developed, sewage service-connected to 21 villages, and the service will be delivered to 55 villages in 2020/21.

On the eighth goal of the sustainable development goals (decent work and economic growth), the report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development indicated that small projects worth EGP 438 million and 71,000 job opportunities were provided in the governorates of Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Qalyubia, Minya, Aswan, and Luxor. Lake, New Valley.

 

 

 

The report also reviewed the assessment of the impact of the "A Decent Life" initiative on the achievement of the eleventh goal of sustainable development (sustainable cities and communities) in the villages of the initiative.

 

  

The report indicated that 11,600 houses were improved, 160km of roads were paved, and 11 veterinary units were established. Nevertheless, the initiative installed 11,000 lighting poles, established and developed 21 youth centers and playgrounds, in addition to establishing and developing 9 social units.