Government supports 357 unsafe areas in Egypt with all basic services: Minister of Planning

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in the activities of the "Development Experiences in the Face of Poverty" session, which was held during the activities of the World Youth Forum 2022 in its fourth edition, under the auspice of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.During her participation, El-Said said that the forum has become an important international platform that everyone looks forward to meeting.Regarding poverty indicators, El-Said explained that given the framework governing the development process at the global level and how to look at the issue of poverty, the UN international agendas, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Agenda 2063, and the Egypt 2030 Agenda as well, which represent the national version of the UN goals, which are also in agreement with African Agenda 2063. El-Said clarified that all those development agendas agree on the importance of the issue of poverty and its dimensions in influencing development rates and thus eliminating poverty in all its forms.El-Said talked about what happened after the Covid 19 pandemic regarding these indicators and the extent of the pandemic’s impact on poverty rates, explaining that the pandemic represents the largest economic crisis that has passed through the world in the modern century.El-Said added that the Covid crisis began with a health crisis, affecting humanity, and thus its repercussions spread from one region to other regions to affect all aspects of the economy, which led to a severe deterioration in the trade movement estimated at 40 to 70 percent, in addition to the sharp drop in investment rates that led to unrest in labor markets.El-Said continued talking about the repercussions of the crisis, referring to learning movement disorders, explaining that the percentage of individuals who had a disturbance in the educational system is estimated at nearly one billion people worldwide during the 3 years from 2020 until the end of 2022.El-Said continued the discussion about the impact on unemployment rates, noting that there are more than 255 million jobs that will be lost by the end of this year, in addition to the entry of 250 million citizens by the end of 2022 into poverty levels (below the poverty line).On the countries’ handling of the crisis, El-Said clarified that there is no unified system for dealing with the crisis, as each country dealt with the crisis according to the degree of its economic progress and its capabilities, as well as its demographic structure and demographics, so there was great variation in the countries’ handling of the crisis.

El-Said added that the uncertainty that is also linked to the health crisis and the strains that mutate in the virus greatly affect the crisis.El-Said reviewed the Egyptian development experience, stressing that Egypt adopts a very important approach, which is the right to development as a fundamental human right, explaining that this principle on which the Egypt Vision 2030 was launched by His Excellency the President of the Republic in 2016, which took into account that achieving economic development comes taking into account social dimension.El-Said emphasized that all these considerations were also confirmed in the National Human Rights Strategy launched by the President in early 2021, which emphasized civil, political, economic, and social rights as well, as well as the rights of human beings, women, children, and people of determination in the entire system.El-Said added that by the pandemic, there was a strategic direction directed by His Excellency the President, represented in the severe balance between preserving the health of the citizen, which is a priority for all by taking precautionary measures, while at the same time continuing the wheel of economic activity, which is a strategic direction governing the Egyptian development experience.El-Said added that there was a very quick response to the crisis, as quick support was started for the sectors affected by the crisis, as several sectors stopped as a result of the cessation of economic activity, such as tourism and aviation, and other sectors that were partially affected, such as small and medium enterprises. El-Said explained that there was support from the financial policies that supported these sectors by postponing the sovereign payments to them with facilities in the payment of those benefits and payments, as well as the monetary policy by rescheduling some debts and giving some soft loans to operate and maintain the entities.El-Said added that the second axis that was worked on is the rearrangement of priorities, as the pandemic prompted the whole world to rearrange its priorities, explaining that it was important to move the state’s investments towards the first sectors such as health and education, in addition to sectors that have the flexibility and the ability to adapt to crises as a sector Communications and information technology, and agriculture.El-Said added that the third axis was represented in supporting the categories: the Egyptian citizen, explaining that the state presented for the first time a presidential grant for irregular employment, which was obtained by nearly 6 million citizens from this employment, for 6 months, as well as an increase in pensions, wages, and salaries.
 El-Said emphasized that Egypt took all these measures at a time when all countries took measures to ensure that the preservation of economic entities, institutions, and employment is national security for Egypt, and it is the peace and social security that Egypt is keen to preserve.El-Said added that these measures represented the short-term plan with which the country dealt with the pandemic quickly, following up that concerning the medium-term axis, it represented accelerating the improvement of the quality of life in the Egyptian countryside and accelerating the implementation of the Decent Life Initiative, which is an actual application of the multidimensional poverty index and even exceeded the indicator in Improving the quality of life.El-Said explained that among the important positive indicators in the Egyptian development plans, the increase in the number of children enrolled in education and the rates of transition to higher levels of education.El-Said pointed out that the poverty indicators in the preliminary stage that were launched in the initiative of a decent life, which included 375 villages, decreased to between 10 and 14% in those villages.El-Said reviewed the pioneering Egyptian experience in developing slums and unsafe areas, pointing to the provision of all basic services in more than 357 unsafe areas, to create a healthy citizen who can deal with society, adding that Egypt is the first country in the Middle East and Arab region that has taken measures that take into account Women's needs during the pandemic.El-Said concluded her dialogue with a message to the youth, explaining that despite all the development efforts undertaken by the state, the most important poverty is the poverty of capabilities, saying that continuous education and training does not stop at a certain age, and the Egyptian state provides a very large group of training and educational programs in all fields.