Egypt’s Planning Minister, NEPAD CEO meet to discuss enhancing cooperation

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Egypt's Minister of Planning and Economic Development met recently with Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas , CEO of African Union Development Agency-NEPAD to discuss enhancing bilateral cooperation.

The meeting witnessed the presence of numerous ministry officials along with a delegation accompanying Ms Nardos Bekele.

During the meeting, Dr. Hala El-Said asserted Egypt’s support for the efforts of the African Union Development Agency to meet regional challenges and contribute to the development of the continent. 

NEPAD represents the organized and funded African Union development arm for projects and programmes to achieve the UN SDGs in the continent,according to El-Said.

El-Said referred to Egypt’s assumption of the chairmanship of the Steering Committee of Heads of State and Government of the African Union Development Agency, NEPAD, from February 2023 to 2025.

She further highlighted Egypt’s most prominent priorities during its chairmanship of NEPAD.

From these priorities, El-Said shed light on the mobilization of financial resources, especially non-traditional ones.

These priorities also include infrastructure development to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the African Development Agenda 2063, particularly in the context of the international economic crisis that undermines development, and efforts in Africa.

Meanwhile, El-Said also referred to the participation of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in the meetings of the African Union Commission and NEPAD on the assessment of the implementation of the first 10-year implementation plan for Africa Agenda 2063 (FTYIP) for 2013-2023 and preparations for the second 10-year implementation plan for Africa Agenda 2063 (STYIP) for 2024-2034.

El-Said also reviewed the areas of cooperation between the Ministry and NEPAD in the two initiatives launched during the Cop27 presidency, the Friends Greening National Investment Plans in Africa and Developing Countries, as well as the Decent Life Initiative for Africa.

The aforementioned initiative has been launched by the Ministry of Planning in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the aim of improving the quality of life of about 30% of the continent most vulnerable and poor villages and rural areas by 2030.

Moreover, the minister of planning highlighted her ministry’s main tasks.

The important of these tasks are the formulation of long-term, medium-term and short-term sustainable development plans, the preparation of the annual investment plan, the evaluation of the investment projects proposed for each entity and the allocation of its own investment plan.

The tasks of the ministry of planning also include the implementation of the national strategy for sustainable development (Egypt Vision 2030) and the follow-up to the implementation of the United Nations sustainable development strategy (United Nations Agenda 2030).