Planning Minister participates in the APRM annual ministerial meeting

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated today in the annual ministerial meeting of The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) for the National Development Planning Community of Practices, which was held over two days, September 10 and 11, under the title of “Critical governance policies to implement Africa's Agenda 2063 and the Global Goals” in cooperation between the Ministries of Planning and Economic Development and Foreign Affairs as well as (APRM).

The meeting witnessed the presence of Eddy Maloka the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Continental Secretariat of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and Ambassador Ashraf Sweilem, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Organizations and Groupings.

During her speech, El-Said explained that today’s meeting came to address governance-oriented policies to implement the 2063 Agenda: “The Africa We Want” and the 2030 Agenda, with a focus on peace, development, governance, and their relationship to national planning.

  El-Said referred to the important role played by the APRM over the years, explaining that the mechanism represents a tool for exchanging experiences, promoting best practices, identifying shortcomings, and assessing capacity-building needs to enhance policies, standards, and practices that support political stability and economic growth.

She added that the APRM has created a joint dialogue on governance, by developing a group of peer groups of stakeholders to enhance skills and expertise, which stimulates research and analysis, as well as creating awareness about good governance practices and their direct link to development, and accelerating Africa's Agenda 2063.

El-Said pointed out that Egypt joined the African Mechanism in 2004, as Egypt began the process of self-evaluation and the launch of Egypt Vision 2030 in 2016.

El-Said explained that the committee for follow-up, monitoring, and implementation of the sustainable development goals, in addition to the establishment of sustainable development units affiliated with the ministries in the governorates of the Arab Republic of Egypt, contributed to the consistency of its development plans with the regional development agenda through the preparation of a strategic map for the updated Vision 2030.

El-Said said that in 2019, Egypt submitted the country's self-evaluation report to the secretariat of the African Peer Review Mechanism to confirm the Egyptian government’s commitment to promoting good governance practices, referring to the national review report that was presented in 2020 for the 29th summit of the African Peer Review Mechanism Forum documenting Egypt’s achievements and challenges in achieving SDGs.

El-Said added that, in compliance with the recommendations of the African Peer Review Mechanism, Egypt developed a national action plan that is consistent with the government’s structural reform program, which was launched in 2021 and which was reflected in the national development plans, Egypt’s Vision 2030.

She further explained that the national action plan includes seven priorities to further strengthen governance and accelerate the vision of Egypt 2030.

El-Said spoke about Egypt’s initiation of implementing the National Action Plan in 2020, a year that witnessed unprecedented global challenges in terms of geopolitics and the outbreak of the Coronavirus, explaining that despite this, Egypt continued the development process of drafting the first interim report of the National Action Plan in January 2023. 

She explained that the interim report addressed the implementation of the national action plan and the recommendations of the review report during the period from 2020 to 2022.

El-Said added that the lessons learned from the audit reports and progress reports prepared by many countries show that implementation, follow-up, monitoring, and evaluation have all been identified as areas for future improvement, at the national and continental levels.

Dr. Hala El-Said explained that while evaluating the first ten-year implementation plan for the 2063 Agenda, it is necessary to look at several statistics, explaining that the population of Africa is equivalent to 17.89% of the total population in the world, which makes Nigeria, Congo, Tanzania, and Egypt the most densely populated in the continent, where this increase in population poses a challenge.

El-Said discussed the digital divide, as with the beginning of revolutions in the field of information technology, the speed of technology, and the digitization process contributed to creating a digital divide.

El-Said continued the conversation about the challenges facing the continent to achieve sustainable development, pointing to the challenges of the availability of financing, increasing levels of debt, the imbalance in the digital divide, and the low level of competitiveness.

El-Said stressed that the sustainability of efforts and the inclusion of an early warning framework will depend on continued political will, high-level support, continuous innovation, and strong governance systems in addition to human and financial resources, support from national budgets, in addition to assistance from development partners.

El-Said concluded by stressing the importance of continuous cooperation and teamwork to address complex development challenges through a systematic approach to finding and implementing different and sustainable solutions.