Planning , Local Development Ministers honor winning provinces in Performance Excellence Incentive Initiative

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held on Sunday a ceremony to honor the provinces that excelled in the Performance Excellence Incentive initiative, on the sidelines of the annual meetings to discuss the economic and social development plan for 2024. The event was attended by H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Major General Hisham Amna, Minister of Local Development, along with the governors of the 27 provinces in Egypt, several members of parliament, and officials from the Ministries of Planning, Economic Development, and Local Development.

During the ceremony, the Ministers of Planning and Local Development honored the winning provinces with awards for the best performance in the management of public investment at the local level. These provinces are Qalyubia, Sharqia, Damietta, Alexandria, Aswan, and Beni Suef. The awards were received by the governors: Major General Abdelhamid El Hajjan, Governor of Qalyubia, Dr. Mamdouh Garrab, Governor of Sharqia, Dr. Manal Awad, Governor of Damietta, Major General Mohamed El Sherif, Governor of Alexandria, Major General Ashraf Attia, Governor of Aswan, and Dr. Mohamed Hani, Governor of Beni Suef.

Dr. Gamal Helmi, Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Development for Sustainable Development Plan Monitoring Affairs, stated that the Performance Excellence Incentive initiative in public investment management at the local level aims to enhance the role of public investment in achieving sustainable development goals, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending at the local level, encourage provinces to adopt the best international practices in planning, monitoring, performance evaluation, enhance the quality of local services provided to citizens, and develop mechanisms for allocating public investments at the local level within a framework of transparency and accountability.

Helmi highlighted the methodology for determining the initiative's criteria, which includes the directions of Egypt Vision 2030 regarding the development of planning and monitoring systems, the General Planning Law No. 18 of 2022, a study of the best international practices (World Bank: 60 countries), recommendations from the IMF's PIMA mission report, coordination with officials at the Ministry of Local Development within the framework of the "Financial Equation Committee," and consultation with experts from the Institute of National Planning (INP), noting that the initiative was worked on by teams from the Ministry of Planning and the general directorates of the provinces and INP.

Helmi stated that the evaluation criteria for the first year 2022/2023 included participatory planning, feasibility studies, investment planning, monitoring of investment plan implementation, capacity building in planning, transparency, and public disclosure. The evaluation criteria for the second year 2023/2024 include the previous criteria plus the addition of two criteria: greening the investment plan and developing self-resources.