Green Smart Projects National Initiative, UN co-operate to launch 2nd stage of the initiative 

The Green Smart Projects National Initiative organized on Tuesday a conference to launch the cooperation with the United Nations (UN) in Egypt, with the participation of the General Coordinator of the National Initiative for Green Smart Projects and the Head of its Organizational Committee Ambassador Hisham Badr, the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt Elena Panova, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development Eng. Khaled Mostafa and some UN agencies' representatives.

 

During his speech, Amb. Hisham Badr stated that the National Initiative for Green Smart Projects is one of the first worldwide.

 He clarified that no countries in the world have launched a competition that includes 100 million citizens to offer solutions to regional challenges.

 

 Additionally, he declared that the second round of the initiative was launched last April and that the deadline for submitting applications is by the end of June, as part of the new partners’ eagerness to encourage more projects to benefit from this opportunity and join the second round of the initiative to profit from the many advantages of the initiative like the platform to support the green economy in Egypt.

 

Badr added that the initiative comes as a response to many questions that arise among all segments of society about the importance of climate change issues, explaining the importance of the participation of all stakeholders to encourage all citizens to submit their projects, explaining that the initiative was able to achieve many achievements, including providing support for advanced projects, promoting them and financing them.

 

Furthermore, Badr stressed the importance of dealing with challenges and climate change in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, stressing the need for participation and cooperation at the local level, then the national level, and then the international level, explaining that the continuation of cooperation between the initiative and the UN in Egypt in the second session highlights its pivotal role.

The current Egyptian presidency of the Conference of the Parties to Climate Change COP-27, in continuation of its efforts to emphasize the implementation of the slogan “Together for Implementation”, translates international agreements and pledges into actions with a tangible impact. As President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi previously explained, achieving success in confronting climate change is related to promoting joint climate action and translating the results of the meetings into tangible reality.

 

Badr added that the initiative represented a model to be replicated worldwide. He stressed the importance of transferring the experience through the UN to transform the initiative into a continuous model.

 

He indicated that he had received a letter from the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirming the organization's support for the initiative, explaining that the organization had chosen one of the projects that applied to the initiative in its first round but did not win by referring to the green projects database, which reflects the importance of that database. In addition, he indicated the United Nations Human Settlements Program's interest in supporting and financing these projects. These projects are presented to several financiers to obtain funding.

 

He also pointed out the consultations that took place with the World Food Program (WFP) so that the initiative would work as an affiliate of the WFP’s programs in Egypt.

 

 

 

Finally, he highlighted United Nations Women's support for the second cycle of the initiative.

Meanwhile, Eng. Khaled Mostafa described the initiative as a unique step taken by the government; explaining that the people affected by climate change and sustainability challenges are being engaged to find solutions and benefit from them instead of generating these solutions through meetings and authoritarian planning.

 

He also indicated that since the first round of the initiative, the UN and its agencies have been considered key partners of the initiative.

 

 By building on this partnership, he hopes to achieve this year's goals. Then he clarified that the initiative is keen to expand the database to incorporate more than 60,000 projects.

 

The second round of the initiative also featured some modern procedures in cooperation with universities, says Mostafa. These procedures trained students to participate in the initiative and present their ideas, projects, and solutions. Moreover, we will benefit from the wide network of youth centers that exist all over Egypt through cooperation with the Youth and Sports Ministry. This will enable us to reach out to the youth and invite them to be part of the initiative.

 

For her part, Elena Panova expressed the UN’s sense of pride for supporting the first phase of the initiative, which brought to life real practical solutions to accelerate climate action, pointing to the launch of the partnership with the initiative which aims to extend the success achieved by the initiative to its second round.

 

She explained that the winning projects were presented at COP-27, pointing out that the initiative covered many topics and came from all over Egypt, reflecting the comprehensiveness of the initiative as it covers all governorates.

 

Lastly, Panova added that the initiative gave a practical example of the sustainable development goals, as it is multidimensional, comprehensive, focuses on solutions, and works to support the multiple dimensions of the sustainable development goals. She also explained that the initiative’s name refers to its content in terms of smart and advanced digital transformation and greenness. This leads to tangible solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its close association with and support for the Decent Life Initiative.

 

Finally, she explained that this represents Egypt's unique approach to localizing sustainable development goals.