Global PHDC 2024 recommendations focus on human development, medical service, population

CAIRO - 24 October 2024: At the closing ceremony of the 2024 Global Congress on Population, Health and Human Development (Global PHDC 2024) hosted by the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo

First: Human Development, Minister of Heath Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced the recommendations of the Conference, focusing on the human development, the medical services, and population-related issues.

The Minister also announced that the third session of the Population, Health and Human Development Conference will be held from 10 to 13 November 2025.

“I affirm that together, we can create a future in which every Egyptian has the opportunity to live a healthy and dignified life,” he said.

The human development recommendations includes: 

• Investing in education by providing support for all in pre-primary and primary education to increase the years of education, besides enhancing the higher education and scientific research.

• Confronting school dropouts, to reduce the high rate of illiteracy in young and middle age groups and work on the necessary legislation and to reduce child labor, and child marriage.

• Focusing on the role of youth in entrepreneurship and investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and promoting gender equality and digital transformation in the future of work.

• Establishing a comprehensive national sports program to discover and develop talents to ensure equal sports opportunities throughout the country.

• Focusing on discovering multiple skills for children and youth.

• Providing sustainable financing and spending on human development, while innovating non-traditional sources of financing.

• Developing comprehensive social protection systems to address income inequality and ensure support for the most needy groups, while promoting growth strategies that reduce economic gaps and provide equal opportunities and resources for all.

• Developing sustainable policies to address the issues of the elderly, enhancing social protection and health care systems for the elderly, and encouraging them to engage in community work.

• Empowering women by promoting social protection programs and developing skills through investing in economic empowerment and enhancing the frameworks of economic integration and financial inclusion policies.

• Achieving partnerships between government institutions and the civil and private sectors.

• Focusing on applied research to solve practical problems in health care.

• Maximizing the role of culture, values, and ethics while preserving the authentic Egyptian identity

• Reviewing and creating legislative and institutional frameworks that ensure the organization of the work of the files and axes of the National Human Development Project

The medical services include:

Achieving comprehensive health coverage according to the prepared timetable and facing challenges in the implementation stages by enhancing the capabilities of health facilities and medical personnel, raising their efficiency, and ensuring the provision of high-quality health services.

• Developing primary health care centers and raising the kills of the medical team.

• Reducing neonatal mortality and expanding public health initiatives..

• Working to reduce cesarean section rates in the public and private sectors.

• Providing a better health for school children in Egypt, which begins with focusing on early diagnosis and rapid therapeutic intervention for cases of anemia, obesity, and dwarfism.

• Integrating mental health into development policies, so that it is an essential part of human development programs.

• Raising the efficiency of hospital services to reduce waiting lists.

• Enhancing local manufacturing of medicines by supporting the production of raw materials locally.

• The need to establish an integrated digital health system that relies on accurate numbers and data quality.

• Applying artificial intelligence within health institutions.

• Increasing access to digital health services.

• Address the relationship between climate and health by increasing investment in infrastructure that is resilient to climate change.

• Launching a unified strategy and platform for medical tourism.

• Raising community awareness about non-communicable diseases, cardiovascular diseases and obesity.

• Establishing an African network for disease prevention, expanding the scope of physician training, and enhancing Egypt’s role in leading training programs.

Population-related issues:

• Implementing the urgent plan to achieve population goals, in coordination with the National Human Development Project.

• Expanding access to comprehensive family development services, raising awareness of family planning services and means, and providing family counseling.

• Investing in empowering the Egyptian family by expanding the Golden 1000 Days Initiative.

• Supporting the role of governorates in implementing human development, the national population strategy, and the urgent plan in the governorates.

• Maximizing the role of religious men and community leaders in supporting positive transformation in societal behavior in the files of the population issue and human development.

• Emphasizing the provision of premarital counseling programs and linking them to premarital tests to form an aware and stable family for a healthy and sound generation.

• Expanding access to health and reproductive services for girls and adolescents, especially in the most needy areas.

• Caring for women's reproductive rights and family planning, especially in Upper Egypt, and taking into account their culture and needs of society.