Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, met with Sima Bohouth, Executive Director of UN Women, during her representation of Egypt at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2022 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The meeting was held under the slogan “Building back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.” 19, while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The meeting witnessed the attendance of Dr. Ahmed Kamaly, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development. During the meeting, Dr. Hala Al-Saeed outlined gender-favorable guidelines for achieving the sustainability strategy, in order to ensure gender equity and equality in implementing investment strategies. She highlighted that the evidence aims to increase the percentage of women’s participation in economic activity to reach 35% by 2030, compared to the current rate of 14.3%. She added that Egypt retained a leadership position regionally, giving gender equity a priority with regard to the development programs. Planning Minister affirmed that Egypt focused in its development programs on empowering women at work to mitigate the pandemic–related repercussions.
Further, “gender equity and women empowerment represent cornerstones in achieving sustainable development goals” stated Al Saeed. She also referred to the state of economic uncertainty affecting the socioeconomic conditions in Egypt and countries around the globe, impacting women’s participation in the workforce. Hence, Egypt stresses the importance of strategic innovative responses to ensure better female representation and protect women’s rights.
The Minister referred that the Ministry launched a website in cooperation with The National Council for Women in line with the initiative supporting women’s participation in decision making. Dr. Hala Al-Saeed also referred to the national projects for developing the Egyptian family, with a focus on women’s empowerment, promoting birth planning, and reproductive health through free access to health care services, awareness campaigns, digital transformation, and legislative reforms.
Ministry of Planning also takes part in the presidential joint program entitled “Egypt SDGs financing strategy” funded by the UN Joint SDG Fund UN Sustainable Development Goals Fund offered by the ILO, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNICEF, and UN Women to support education, health, social security, water, wastewater treatment, and transportation. In the end, Dr. Hala Al-Saeed highlighted that Egypt has been committed to protecting women against violence, supporting female breadwinners as part of Egypt’s 2030, and protecting women’s political and socio-economic rights.
