Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development launches 27 reports to localize SDGs at the local level

Preparing 27 reports to localize the sustainable development goals covering all Egyptian governorates, and updated annually: Says Hala El-Said

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Development and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), held an event to launch 27 reports to localize the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The event witnessed the presence of H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Major General Mahmoud Shaarawy, Minister of Local Development, The United Nations Resident Coordinator to Egypt, Ms. Elena Panova, Ms. Frederica Mayer, representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Egypt, with the participation of all the governors, and some members of the House of Representative's elders, and relevant stakeholders.El-Said explained that the launch of the 27 reports in the presence and participation of development partners from the private sector, civil society, government officials at the central and local levels, representatives of parliaments and international institutions, embodies the approach that the Egyptian state believes in and is keen on, which is the participatory approach. El-Said stressed that the state always views the development process as a collective responsibility that everyone shares in efforts to achieve, adding that this was confirmed by the United Nations goals to achieve sustainable development for 2030, where the seventeenth goal came on “Activating the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.”



El-Said added that as a result of the unprecedented crisis the world is witnessing due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, countries are in dire need more than ever to rearrange priorities, ensure the effective participation of local administrations in the development planning process, as well as follow up on the implementation of sustainable development goals and identify development gaps.El-Said elaborated that this is related to the need to use accelerators to achieve development; Chief among them is the localization of sustainable development goals at the local level; to ensure the implementation of the main principles of "Comprehensive Development" and "Leaving No One or Place Behind".El-Said stressed that the Egyptian state is paying increasing attention to the process of localization of sustainable development goals because of its supportive effect on achieving inclusive and sustainable growth and balanced regional development, as they are among the main pillars of the national sustainable development strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. El-Said added that the Egyptian state continues its efforts, in cooperation with all development partners, to develop and implement evidence-based policies to achieve sustainable development goals at the local level.El-Said indicated that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in cooperation with the Information and Decision Support Center in the Egyptian Cabinet, the Egyptian National Council for Competitiveness, and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics(CAPMS), has initiated an ambitious project to develop the first indicator of the competitiveness of the Egyptian governorates.El-Said added that the index aims to pave the way for increasing the productivity of the governorates, providing a suitable environment for investment, in addition to promoting comprehensive growth through regional integration, contributing to national development and enhancing competitiveness, to reach more general and comprehensive strategic goal of achieving sustainable development.In the context of talking about resources, El-Said confirmed that the state is working to mobilize all available resources, raise the efficiency of spending and manage public investment to enhance development efforts.El-Said noted that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development put in 2018, a financing equation to ensure a fair and objective distribution of public investments among the different governorates.El-Said added that these reports also aim to use the available data strategically to highlight the sustainable development goals, compare and arrange the performance of each governorate in achieving these goals, identifying development gaps in each governorate, and relevant indicators, and implement appropriate policies and programs to further improve the performance of each governorate.

 El-Said explained that the stage of preparing these reports focused on addressing some of the main challenges represented in the availability and quality of data, and the development of awareness of sustainable development goals at the local level.El-Said added that the state is working to raise awareness of sustainable development in various governorates, and to develop capacities at the local level, especially in the field of data collection and processing, through several interventions, including the formation of teams responsible for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of sustainable development goals in different ministries and governorates. El-Said indicated that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development launched the "Be an Ambassador" initiative for sustainable development, which includes training 1,000 young people, as a first stage, on issues related to sustainable development.El-Said explained that the next phase aims to expand the initiative to include workers in the press and media field, in recognition of their active role in spreading development awareness issues.El-Said also stressed Egypt's keenness to play its active role in efforts to achieve sustainable development, whether at the regional or international level, by ensuring active participation in all development initiatives and exchanging experiences and successful experiences with various countries of the world in this field.She highlighted that Egypt regularly participates in the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and was among only 10 countries in the world that submitted three voluntary reports that monitor progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals at the national level.El-Said added that in line with the trend to localize development goals at the local level, the upcoming sessions of the High-Level Political Forum will focus on submitting voluntary local reports at the governorate level, which will help local governments share progress, experiences, and best practices on SDGs.El-Said also referred to the national project for the development of the Egyptian countryside: Decent Life initiative, which combines the efforts of all state agencies and institutions in partnership with the private sector and civil society.The initiative aims to change the face of life for the better for more than half of Egypt's population in villages and rural areas.


 El-Said stressed that the initiative is considered one of the largest comprehensive and integrated development experiments and initiatives in the world, whether in terms of funding amounting to about EGP 800 billion ($ 52 billion) over three years or in terms of beneficiaries whose number exceeds 58 million people in more than 4,500 an Egyptian village and its dependencies.El-Said stressed that the launch of the reports on the localization of the sustainable development goals at the local level is the culmination of serious work and fruitful cooperation between the work team of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). El-Said added that it represents a starting point for another process of work based on the data on which these reports were based and its findings and indicators to identify development gaps in each governorate, to design and implement appropriate policies and work programs to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development goals at the local level.