Minister of Planning & Economic Development reviews Egypt's position in the 2021 SDG Index,
28 July 2021
Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development received on Wednesday a report from the ministry's Sustainable Development Unit on the general features of Egypt's situation in the annual report of the 2021 SDG Index.
The 2021 SDG Index was published by the University of Cambridge last June in cooperation with the German Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network SDSN, which operates under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The report indicated the relative stability in Egypt’s classification, as the country ranked 82 out of 165 countries ranked during 2021 and got a score of 68.6 out of 100, which exceeds the regional average at 67.1 degrees, compared to 83rd place out of 166 countries during 2020.
The aforementioned results came despite the unprecedented challenges that Egypt and the world witnessed due to the negative repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a decline in the classification of many other countries.
The report pointed out that Egypt made progress in four UN SDGs goals in 2021, namely the fourth goal related to quality education, the sixth goal related to clean water, and the ninth goal related to the industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
The fourth goal related to quality education has been reflected in the improvement in the indicators of the rate of children's enrollment in primary schools and the completion rate of the preparatory stage, the increase in the percentage of the population using the Internet, as well as the increase in the percentage of mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 people.
Concerning climate action, the Egyptian situation has improved in the two indicators of carbon dioxide emissions in fossil fuel exports and carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion and cement production.
Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, stated that Egypt's position in most of the international goals has witnessed stability due to followed policies that prevented the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
El-Said referred to the SDGs goals that have made progress in Egypt, including the third goal on good health and well-being, the seventh goal on clean energy, the tenth goal on reducing inequalities, the twelfth goal on responsible consumption and production, and the sixteenth goal on peace, justice, and strong institutions.
Concerning the International Spillover Index, which measures the impact of each country’s domestic policies on other countries, positively or negatively, in four main areas: the environmental and social repercussions resulting from trade, direct cross-border flows, especially air and water pollution, international economic and financial flows, peacekeeping and the security repercussions, El-Said indicated that Egypt ranks 36 out of 165 countries in 2021 with a score of 98.7 out of 100, knowing that the scores for this indicator range from 0 (worst performance / significant negative repercussions) to 100 (best possible performance / no effects)which reflects the good handling and quality of the Egyptian state’s performance in dealing with the pandemic.