Planning Minister participates in the “Human Rights - Building a Post Pandemic World" conference organized by ECSS

At the outset of her speech during the conference, Dr. Hala El-Said emphasized that the issuance of the report "Corona and Human Rights - All Together" by the United Nations, in April 2020, serves as a compass that directs all countries of the world alike towards the necessary efforts to recover from this crisis, with the re-success of prioritizing according to a human rights perspective.El-Said referred to the procedures set by the United Nations Development Program for the phase of recovery from the effects of the pandemic until 2030, which aim to promote human rights in the world, within the framework of the sustainable development goals.These measures included providing social protection and respecting the rights of everyone without discrimination, investing in capacity development focusing on health sectors and addressing income inequalities, transformation based on green recovery, preserving natural resources and combating climate change, taking concrete steps towards inclusion and the promotion of diversity, including gender equality, governance, and the acceleration of digital transformation.In the context of talking about the Egyptian state’s efforts to guarantee human rights in its comprehensive sense, El-Said pointed out that the state has implemented many development initiatives, including the “Decent Life” initiative, survival boats.While in the field of health, the presidential initiative” 100 Million Healthy Lives" campaign” to eliminate virus C has been launched, which is the largest initiative in the health sector in the history of Egypt and the world.Moreover, there were many other initiatives such as the initiative to detect obesity, stunting, and anemia among school students, and the initiative to double intensive care beds and first-aid points. In the field of education, the initiative came to reduce the density of classes and link technical education outputs to the labor market through the establishment of technical applied schools and technological universities, and the expansion of the availability of private universities.El-Said added that in recent years the state has also taken into consideration the intensification of public investments to develop the infrastructure, especially in the sectors of "transportation, drinking water and sanitation, and electricity services."El-Said stressed the keenness of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development - which is entrusted with managing the development planning system - to direct public investments to ensure that priorities are arranged according to financing needs, address development gaps between governorates, ensure transparency, provide information and keep it updated on the performance of development programs with clear performance indicators.Concerning gender equality and equal opportunities, El-Said explained that in 2017 the government adopted the “National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030”, which aims to integrate women and their issues in various policies, strengthen their political, economic and social role, and ensure gender equality considerations.Emphasizing this, the Egyptian government's program of action stipulated principles that seek to reduce gender disparities, most notably equality before the law, political rights, and educational rights, including equality in educational opportunities, work rights, equal pay, and maternity protection laws.The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development also launched a gender-responsive sustainable development guide, which aims to create an encouraging environment to increase the participation of women in economic activity in light of the directions of Egypt’s Vision 2030 and mitigate the effects of the Corona pandemic, as well as directing government agencies towards implementing development programs and projects that work to implement the state’s vision in the field of social care for women and children.El-Said highlighted the achievements of the state in this field, including In the political field, Egypt has achieved historical and unprecedented levels of female representation rates in the Egyptian parliament, where the percentage of women’s representation in the Egyptian parliament reached 28% and about 13.3% in the Senate, and socially Egypt has registered. Its highest point is in the pensions and equal income index by 100%, and the entrepreneurship and work environment index for women by 75%, in the “Women, Business and Law” index issued by the World Bank.In the context of women's economic empowerment, El-Said explained that females represent 50.7% of the total workforce in the state’s administrative apparatus , on the other hand, the percentage of women’s representation in the boards of directors of companies registered on the stock exchange increased from 10.1 percent in 2019 to 11.6 percent in 2020. The percentage in public sector companies reached 8.7% in 2020 compared to 6.1% in 2019. El-Said referred to the FRA’s Board of Directors’ decision in 2020, which stipulates that “The Formation of the Boards of Directors of the Egyptian Federations of Companies and Entities Working in the field of non-banking financial activities shall include at least one Female Component.”Within the framework of the government and the Central Bank of Egypt efforts to achieve financial inclusion, El-Said reported that the number of women benefiting from payment services using a mobile phone increased to about 2 million women, and women also received 40% of the increase in the number of bank accounts during the last year (from February 2020 - February 2020 - 2021).El-Said stressed that among the positive indicators, which represent important indications through which we see the fruits of development initiatives and the efforts made by the Egyptian state in recent years to enhance the economic, social, and educational rights of citizens, the poverty rate decreased for the first twenty years (since 1999) to 29.7%, as the rate poverty decreased in all rural and urban areas as well as the increase in the employment rate and the decrease in unemployment rates, which fell to 7.2% in the second quarter of 20/2021.Dr. Hala El-Said reviewed the set of proactive policies that the government has taken to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, including supporting the affected sectors: by reducing financial burdens and providing liquidity and credit; In the forefront of which are the tourism, aviation, shipping, and travel sectors and the medium, small and micro enterprises sector, to mitigate the effects of what these sectors witnessed in terms of closure and complete or partial stoppage of establishments and the negative effects of that on employment.This is in addition to stimulating the economy by increasing incomes and increasing investments in priority sectors and adopting incentive monetary and financial policies that include postponing and rescheduling debts of some sectors, financing packages, postponing tax payments and some sovereign dues, as well as supporting the affected groups: by supporting regular and non-employment Regular through the contingency fund; (The presidential grant, which was scheduled for three months, and was then extended under the direction of the Egyptian President, for a further three months). The Egyptian government is currently working to take advantage of the databases that include about 6 million applicants to obtain the grant on the consequences of Corona, to develop appropriate training programs in preparation for creating suitable job opportunities for them.El-Said pointed out that women are at the forefront of groups affected by the pandemic, explaining that as a result of the efforts and measures undertaken by the Egyptian state and the National Council for Women to develop a policy paper on responding to the needs of women and girls during the Coronavirus pandemic. Egypt ranked first in the report issued by the United Nations Women and the United Nations Development Program on measures taken by countries around the world to support women during the pandemic period.For the first time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus an Egyptian resolution on women's rights to reinforce the rapid national and international response to the impact of the pandemic on women and girls. Thus, Egypt led an international movement to protect women's rights in light of the pandemic as the most important human right.El-Said pointed to the state’s expansion in following social protection measures, explaining that as a result of the positive impact of the first phase of the national project for the development of the Egyptian countryside, "A Decent Life", on the quality of life for citizens.The second phase of the initiative was launched within the framework of the national project for the development of the Egyptian countryside,  which extends for three years, targeting all the villages in the Egyptian countryside (4,500 villages in which half of the population of Egypt live - 50 million citizens), which are transformed into sustainable rural communities .