Egypt's Ministry of Planning and Economic Development participates in the Regional Workshop on VNR in the Arab Region

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, represented by Dr. Mona Essam, Head of the Sustainable Development Unit, participated in the fifth edition of the regional workshop on voluntary national reviews (VNR) in the Arab region, which was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in cooperation with the Arab League and the Department of Economic Affairs Economic and Social at the United Nations (DESA).
Dr. Mona Essam reviewed the Egyptian experience in presenting the third national voluntary report at the high-level political forum for 2021, focusing on three main points, namely, the localization of sustainable development goals in the governorates, the challenges of preparing the report, and the most prominent results it concluded.
 Essam pointed out that the focus has been on the state's orientation towards localizing development and the many efforts it is making to ensure that no one is left behind.
The most prominent of which are the reports on the localization of sustainable development goals in the governorates that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development worked on, to follow up the governorates' performance in 32 indicators 11 Sustainable Development Goals by providing detailed data and evidence.
Essam indicated that Egypt, like other countries, faced some challenges during the preparation process for the third voluntary national report, the most important of which is the limited data available for the situation after the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic and the selection of mechanisms for monitoring data that reflects the impact of the pandemic on achieving international goals, and communication with various stakeholders in light of the precautionary measures to confront the Coronavirus and the spread of the culture of remote work.



The head of the Sustainable Development Unit noted the most important challenges facing the country in achieving the sustainable development goals, as the challenges monitored by the 2018 report were mentioned, namely financing, data, governance, and population growth, with an explanation of the progress made in them and the efforts made to reduce them.
Dr. Mona Essam continued that there are several new challenges, namely the digital divide, the participation of women in the workforce, in addition to dealing with multidimensional environmental challenges, and the increasing pressure on natural resources as a result of population growth and economic activities.
 She referred to two main accelerators to push efforts towards achieving the sustainable development goals, which are information technology and digital transformation, and partnerships to achieve the sustainable development goals.