During HLPF 2023 activities:Planning Minister organizes a side event on popularizing local voluntary reports to accelerate the 2030 Agenda & localize SDGs

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development organized a side event entitled "Dissemination of Local Voluntary Reports to Accelerate the 2030 Agenda and Localize the Sustainable Development Goals" in the presence of H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development.

 

The event took place in cooperation between the Sustainable Development Unit at the Ministry of Planning and the Permanent Missions of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and the European Committee of the Regions (European Union).

 

The session was moderated by Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and the side event was attended by Maymoonah Muhammad, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), Ambassador Muhammad Amir Khan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, and Abdul Allah Dardari, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Office for Arab States of the United Nations Development Programme, Ambassador Antonio Francisco, Special Adviser for International Relations to the Minister of Cities of Brazil, Ricardo Rio, Mayor of the Portuguese city of Braga and member of the European Union Commission, and Fernandez Barasa, Governor of Kakamega County, Kenya.

 

 

 

 

During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said affirmed Egypt's commitment to achieving the sustainable development goals since its adoption in 2015, as Egypt was one of the first countries to set a national agenda for sustainable development (Egypt's Vision 2030) and update it to keep pace with global changes such as climate change, water scarcity, geopolitical events, and high population growth.

 

 

 She added that the Egyptian government, with the support of the United Nations, had adopted the “Integrated National Financing Framework” (INFF) to formulate the strategy for financing the sustainable development goals in Egypt.

 

 

 

El-Said said that Egypt submitted 3 voluntary reports on sustainable development in 2016, 2018, and 2021, to provide a quick overview of the progress made in achieving the goals of sustainable development and the challenges that impede their development, noting that Egypt launched a multi-stakeholder participation mechanism "Partnerships for Sustainable Development", which is an online interactive platform.

 

 

 

El-Said also indicated Egypt's intention to launch (Egypt's Development Portal) as part of efforts to enable policies, investments, programs, and public discussions based on data and evidence, as the portal collects the latest available data and information on a central platform to facilitate access to all those concerned with sustainable development.

 

The Minister of Planning said that in light of the exceptional and unprecedented challenges the world is witnessing, which impede the progress of countries towards achieving the goals of sustainable development, all countries urgently need to continue implementing sustainable development plans, especially at the local level to ensure the effective participation of local communities in identifying gaps, opportunities, and challenges, taking into account the diverse demographic, cultural, social and economic conditions to achieve inclusive and healthy growth.

 

 

El-Said explained that Egypt is well aware of the principle of "leaving no one behind", as an integral principle of the 2030 Agenda. Therefore, the Egyptian government has attached substantial importance to the localization of sustainable development goals at the governorate level to address development gaps. This is one of the forms of inequality that should be reduced.

 

She stressed that sustainable development will not be achieved without adopting a bottom-up approach that takes into account development gaps and ensures balanced and equitable spatial development.

 

The Minister of Planning reviewed Egypt's efforts in this regard, including the launch of 27 reports in November 2021 to localize the sustainable development goals in the governorates, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, to document progress and the current status of implementing the sustainable development goals in each governorate.

 

She also referred to the launch of the competitiveness index at the governorate level in partnership with the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council and the Center for Support and Decision Making in the Cabinet, as well as the launch of the national initiative for smart green projects, which aims to develop a map at the governorate level for smart green projects and find national solutions to climate change problems.

 

 

 

El-Said also referred to the Ministry of Planning’s announcement, on the sidelines of the Cop27 Climate Conference, to host the “Sustainable Development Goals Localization Center in Cairo,” which focuses on disseminating Egyptian knowledge, encouraging the exchange of experiences, and sharing best practices and research to promote the localization of sustainable development goals throughout Africa, pointing to Egypt’s aspirations to host the twelfth World Urban Forum in 2024.

 

 

The Minister of Planning reviewed the “Decent Life” initiative to improve the lives of citizens in the Egyptian countryside, noting that the industry was included by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) as one of the accelerators for achieving sustainable development goals, and it is one of the success stories for the localization of sustainable development goals because it is implemented comprehensively.

 

El-Said indicated that the ministry, in partnership with African countries and international organizations, launched the Decent Life for Africa initiative. This initiative aims to improve the quality of life in 30% of the most vulnerable and poorest villages and rural areas on the continent by 2030. It does so climate-sensitively.

 

On voluntary local reporting, Dr. Hala El-Said said that the Ministry of Planning, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), supported 3 Egyptian governorates - as a first stage - in developing the first voluntary government reviews (VLRs), which help local governments to share the progress made in achieving the sustainable development goals in a participatory manner.

 

El-Said referred to work on transferring the accumulated knowledge to the rest of the governorates with the aim of providing quality data to follow up on the performance of the governorates in achieving the sustainable development goals, presenting the opportunities and challenges facing the governorates in implementing the sustainable development goals and identifying development gaps that exist between the governorates while ensuring the effective participation of all stakeholders.

El-Said confirmed that the selection of governorates was made according to the level of readiness of the governorate, and its vision on how to benefit from the VLR, as well as geographical representation, explaining that the local voluntary reports were developed in a way that easily linked them to the voluntary national review in order to establish the necessary links between local and national plans in achieving sustainable development goals.

 

 

She reviewed the steps for preparing local voluntary reports, which included holding a high-level localization workshop with the participation of 13 governorates that expressed interest in developing their local reports, then sharing a readiness questionnaire with the governorates to assess their institutional and human capabilities, data availability and experience in preparing similar reports.

 

Accordingly, 3 governorates were selected as the first batch (Beheira - Fayoum - Port Said), hosting multi-stakeholder workshops. Then a series of workshops were held on-site with local government units, the private sector, youth, and NGOs.

 

These workshops focused on collecting quantitative and qualitative data, as well as capacity building in monitoring and reporting on the SDGs.

 

El-Said said that the local voluntary reporting process can help support policy shifts at different levels, and the local priorities identified in those reports can guide strategic planning.

 

 

The process contributes to the allocation of public investments for sustainable development goals. It also provides data that enables evidence-based decision-making at the governorate and national levels.