On behalf of the Minister for Planning and Economic Development: National Initiative for Smart Green Projects General Coordinator delivers the Minister's speech at the opening of the Africa Public Administration Conference

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, represented by Ambassador Hisham Badr, General Coordinator of the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects, participated in the launch of the first continental conference of the Section on African Public Administration (SAPA) of the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA).

 

The conference is entitled "Localization of the Sustainable Development Agenda in Africa: Challenges, Lessons Learned, and Opportunities for African Public Administration Efforts".

 

The conference witnessed the presence of Dr. Mohamed Alaa, Deputy Director of the International Relations Office, acting also as Human Rights Unit Officer at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.

According to El-Said, the topic of the conference deals with sustainable development on the African continent and the localization of Africa's Agenda 2063.

El-Said indicated that Cairo hosted the first continental SAPA conference at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

El-Said added that achieving the sustainable development goals faces more challenges due to global crises, economic slowdown, growing debt burdens, increasing poverty and inequality, in addition to food and energy insecurity, and disruptions in global supply chains.

El-Said pointed out the need for countries all over the world to reassess their priorities, follow up on the implementation of sustainable development goals, and identify development gaps, stressing the need to use development accelerators, with a focus primarily on the localization of those goals to ensure effective work on the ‘Leave no one behind' (LNOB) principle.

In her speech delivered by Ambassador Hisham Badr, El-Said continued that Egypt's Vision 2030 focuses on the localization of sustainable development goals as a means to achieve balanced development.

El-Said indicated that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development has taken several measures to achieve this goal, pointing to the development of a financing equation for distributing public investments to various regions and governorates in an objective manner, and taking into account the social and economic conditions of different geographical regions.

El-Said pointed out that Egypt submitted three voluntary national reports to measure progress toward sustainable development goals, in 2016, 2018, and 2021.

El-Said added that the ministry is currently cooperating with the United Nations Development Program in various fields, such as preparing for a side event on the sidelines of the High-Level Political Forum 2023, to present Egypt's experience in conducting voluntary local reports, which included the participation of various stakeholders in many consultations.

El-Said added that cooperation includes supporting the publication of the second edition of the "Reports of Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals", which covers all Egyptian governorates, and serves as a neutral assessment tool to monitor progress in achieving the sustainable development goals and identify development gaps in each governorate.

Dr. Hala El-Said announced that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development will soon launch, in cooperation with various development partners, the first indicator of the competitiveness of the Egyptian governorates, explaining that the indicator was developed as a comprehensive tool to ensure the effectiveness of policies and promote the localization of development at the governorate level.

Its main objective is to increase productivity and competitiveness among governorates. It also fosters an improved business environment to attract capital investment and drive global growth through regional integration.

El-Said indicated that the Egyptian government launched a decent life initiative in cooperation with the private sector and civil society, intending to effectively address development inequalities and ensure inclusiveness.

El-Said added that this initiative aims to improve the quality of life for more than half of Egypt's population by providing basic public services. The Decent Life Initiative is one of the world's most comprehensive and integrated development initiatives. It includes a wide range of sustainable development goals.

El-Said indicated that the “A decent life for an Africa that can adapt to the climate” initiative was officially launched during the year of Cop-27, explaining that the primary goal of this initiative is the cooperation of African governments with various partners to improve the quality of life in 30% of the most vulnerable and poorest regions by the year 2030.

El-Said also touched on her speech delivered on her behalf by Ambassador Hisham Badr to the "National Initiative for Smart Green Projects", which commends Egypt's efforts to localize the sustainable development goals.

She explained that it is a pioneering initiative that encourages innovative and practical solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

El-Said added that the initiative is being implemented under President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's auspices, as it adopts a comprehensive approach aimed at developing a governorate-level map for smart green projects and providing climate solutions to address the most pressing climate change risks in each governorate.

El-Said added that to ensure the implementation and use of these solutions, the initiative supports the mobilization of resources and partnerships necessary to localize smart climate solutions, adding that as a result of the broad impact achieved by the initiative in its first round, the door for participation in the second round of projects has been opened in 27 governorates in Egypt in 6 categories.

El-Said explained that the journey towards development will be accompanied by various challenges, stressing the need for cooperation to address the main obstacles, with the need for the countries of the continent to exchange their experiences, learn from each other, and expand their knowledge about the challenges and opportunities available for development.

African countries must exchange knowledge, and share experiences and lessons learned to broaden awareness of development challenges and opportunities. According to El-Said, they also need to cooperate in providing the necessary technical expertise to achieve sustainable development in Africa.

El-Said affirmed that supporting African countries in achieving Africa's Agenda 2063 is one of Egypt's top priorities, as African cooperation is critical for enhancing flexibility and sustainability on the continent.