Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El Saeed said that the Egyptian State is devoting more attention to localizing sustainable development goals (SDGs), given their conducive role in achieving inclusive and sustainable growth, and balanced regional development, two essential pillars of Egypt’s Vision 2030.
Saeed made the remarks during a workshop organized by her ministry on Tuesday 10/1/2023, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the title: “Localization of Sustainable Development Goals all across Egypt: Preparing Voluntary Local Reviews.”
Under the unprecedented crisis the world is going through due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent Russian-Ukrainian war, reprioritizing state’s needs and active engagement of local governments in development planning is now more urgent than ever, the minister said.
She also underlined the importance of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) as a powerful tool to advance the localization of SDGs by monitoring progress and citizens’ engagement in goal-setting and reporting local action results.
Some provincial governors attended the workshop, along with a host of representatives from local as well as international bodies.
The minister also emphasized the importance of regularly following up on the implementation of SDGs and identifying development gaps following a bottom-up approach to help promote the development process and raise local awareness of development opportunities and challenges, taking into account the features and characteristics of each region.
The State is also working with all development partners to draw up and execute evidence-based policies aimed at ensuring adequate implementation of sustainable development goals at the local level, Saeed told workshop participants, who included UNDP Resident Representative Alessandro Fracassetti and chairman of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) Khairat Barakat.
Meanwhile, Fracassetti said the Egyptian government made great strides towards integrated local development by adopting large-scale initiatives, such as the presidential “Decent Life” Initiative.
