Egypt’s Minister of Planning & Economic Development delivers an informative lecture on the "Decent Life" initiative at the Egyptian Association for Political Economy

“Decent life” initiative is the largest project in the last half-century: Says Hala El-Said

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, gave an educational lecture entitled "Features of the Development Experience (Decent Life)", which was held by the Egyptian Association for Political Economy, Statistics and Legislation at the beginning of its cultural season for the year 2021-2022, in the presence of a large number of researchers and stakeholders.During the educational lecture, El-Said explained that within the framework of launching the new version of Egypt’s Vision 2030, which depends on participatory dialogue, everything related to the new developments, whether they appeared after the economic reform or the developments that resulted from the Covid 19 pandemic, were completed.El-Said stressed that the pandemic forced the whole world to rearrange its priorities, noting that Egypt had also rearranged its priorities according to global priorities.El-Said noted that Egypt is no different from the world in terms of digitization, the importance of maintaining food security, the importance of distance education and learning, and job change.


El-Said explained that all these matters have been updated with Egypt’s Vision 2030 document, which represents the document of the entire state, not just the government, noting the participation of the private sector, civil society, and independent and impartial researchers.


El-Said suggested holding some meetings in the association for dialogue and consultation in a community dialogue regarding the updated document and to take advantage of all opinions to complete the updating process properly in preparation for the launch with the New Year's start.


During the lecture, El-Said reviewed the system of the Decent Life Initiative, explaining that it represents an unprecedented development initiative in the number of financial allocations in it, its fields and time range, as well as the groups it targets, stressing that it targets more than half of the population of Egypt.
 El-Said explained that upon the completion of the project, we will witness a change in the face and quality of life in the Egyptian countryside and thus in the Egyptian society, following up on that a development situation will be created in the Egyptian society through the number of factories and individuals that will work in it, which will contribute to a very large development situation.El-Said added that the development of the annual medium-term plan is following the governing framework, which is represented in the Egyptian constitution and the assignments of the political leadership, Egypt’s Vision 2030, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as Africa’s Agenda 2063, the government’s work program as well as innovations.El-Said stressed the importance of taking into account the issues of green recovery in all projects and the localization of sustainable development goals at the governorate level, to achieve balanced regional development.El-Said tackled the main features and advantages of the initiative for a decent life, explaining that the most prominent feature of this initiative is the participation of all state agencies in it from the government, the private sector, and civil society.This is in addition to being the largest project at the national level with a cost of about EGP 800 billion to be pumped in 3 years, benefiting 58 million citizens, explaining that the project covers the 17 sustainable development goals, as it addresses poverty reduction, job creation, equality, and green and sustainable settlements.El-Said added that the initiative also operates according to evidence-based planning, where measurement is taken before starting and after completing the program in terms of impact on poverty, job opportunities, and quality of life.El-Said said that the ministry has established a large mechanism for monitoring, evaluation, and follow-up, which is a purely Egyptian mechanism characterized by being mechanized to limit work in a mechanized way and enable all ministries and agencies to enter it and come up with performance indicators in cooperation with civil society institutions of youth to measure the level of citizens' satisfaction.

El-Said confirmed that the “Decent Life” Initiative is the largest project over the past half-century, explaining that the project covers more than 4,500 villages, 28,000 dependents, and 175 centers across 20 governorates.
“The preliminary stages were started, as 375 villages were started from the beginning of 2019 until mid-2020, with the allocation of about EGP 15.5 billion,” She said.El-Said confirmed that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed the participation of all state institutions and the preparation of their resources to participate in the project and to bring about integration among all institutions.El-Said stressed that all state agencies and institutions would work together to work on the project and complete it within 3 years, explaining that the volume of work on the project and the number of institutions involved in completing the villages is very large.El-Said explained that the initiative aims to improve living and investment in people, improve infrastructure and urban services, sewage and water, paving and road projects, and the quality of human development services such as education, classroom density, health units, youth centers, and employment opportunities.El-Said explained the importance of providing job opportunities for the sustainability of all these efforts, stressing the focus of all institutions on providing job opportunities in an integrated manner for their sustainability.El-Said added that by the end of the first phase of the initiative, 17% of the population was reached, explaining that next year, 35% of the population will be covered, and by the end of 2023, about 58% of the total population will be covered in the total targeted villages.El-Said confirmed that the initiative will represent an accelerator for the implementation of the sustainable development goals, noting that the initiative was registered on the platform of the best practices platform that achieves the sustainable development goals as the best development initiatives in the world. El-Said also referred to the launch of the "Your Good Origin" initiative, in cooperation with the Ministry of Immigration, for all Egyptians abroad who want to participate in the development of their villages.ع