Planning Ministry, UNDP implement field visits to Fayoum, Beheira, and Port Said governorates

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held a series of field visits to the governorates of Fayoum, Beheira, and Port Said in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and some relevant experts, within the framework of the process of preparing local voluntary reports for the three governorates, so that the Arab Republic of Egypt can present them at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) that is held in July of each year at the United Nations in New York.

Dr. Mona Essam, Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Development for Sustainable Development Affairs headed the ministry’s delegation.

The aforementioned field visit witnessed the presence of Sylvain Merlin, Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP, Dr. Khaled Zakaria, Professor of Public Policy and Financial and Governmental Management at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, and Dr. Ayman El-Bagoury, from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University.

The delegation conducted several meetings with the governors to discuss the implementation plan of action. It also discussed the timetable for local voluntary reports.

During the meeting, Dr. Mona Essam stressed the importance of the participatory approach and the participation of all concerned stakeholders in the three governorates in preparing these reports.

Furthermore, she explained that the reports are not governmental, but reflect the priorities and needs of the citizens of the governorate. This confirms the readiness of the Ministry of Planning to provide all forms of support to the governorates to prepare their local voluntary reports.

For their part, the governors praised the importance of these reports for their governorates in localizing sustainable development goals at the local level. They also praised the importance of identifying and monitoring sustainable development goals’ progress.

They stressed that they highlight each governorate's competitive advantage and take it seriously.

The report also identifies the priorities and challenges that impede the development and planning of each governorate's future.

It is noteworthy that the field visits to the three governorates included many discussion sessions with relevant stakeholders from the governorate leaders and representatives of the service directorates, the private sector, and civil society, where the experts concerned with this file made an objective and technical presentation that included the steps required to prepare local voluntary reports, which begin with the Planning phase, and end with the periodic follow-up phase, in addition to the proposed structure of the report and the role of stakeholders in its preparation.