UNRC: Haya Karima is one of the boldest development initiatives in Egypt, globally

CAIRO – 30 October 2021: UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, Elena Panova praised Saturday Egypt, under the leadership of his Excellency President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, for embarking on the Haya Karima Initiative, which she described as “one of the boldest sustainable development initiatives not just in Egypt but perhaps globally.”

This came during a celebration organized in Luxor by United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and Egypt's Local Development Ministry on the occasion of the World Cities Day.

“The fight against climate change presents the single biggest threat to sustainable development. Rural communities are among the first to be impacted by Climate change as they will be the ones carrying the burden of reduced food production, degradation of natural habitats and biodiversity, as well as damage to agricultural land. Therefore, adaptation and resilience should start at that level – at the level of rural communities,” she said in her speech.

During the panel, she brought three points to the discussion, highlight the work of Haya Karima, and the further efforts required to achieve sustainability.  

She started by saying that  Haya Karima presents an outstanding opportunity for localizing realisation of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs and reaching those at risk of being left behind as the initiative “targets the poorest villages through a comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach.”

She further went on speaking about the acceleration potential of the initiative with regard to soft and hard infrastructure

“The hard infrastructure (like building a hospital or road), because it leads to tangible results in the short run, understandably receives the most attention in the investments. As a result, the soft infrastructure, especially in terms of human capacities, institutional infrastructure and knowledge management, could receive less attention,” she said.  

She added, “If we talk about measuring progress of Haya Karima – we should not miss on the opportunity to align the results framework and monitoring system of Haya Karima with the monitoring system of SDGs and Vision 2030. This will ensure that we can monitor the contribution of Haya Karima to global and national goals.”

In this context, she assured that the UN has a long-standing partnership with the Government of Egypt, and “we are already contributing to Haya Karima through various UN programmes and projects, especially with a focus on the soft component. We are present in many of the Haya Karima villages through over 400 activities that target more than 1.4 million beneficiaries.”

Panova concluded her speech by stressing the importance of a coordinated approach by all stakeholders, including with and between the Government, Bilateral and Multilateral Development Partner, the UN, Private Sector and Civil Society.

“I was honoured to participate earlier this month in the meeting hosted by H.E. the Prime Minister, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, where he shared with a number of development partners the details of Haya Karima’s multi-dimensional framework and discussed possible areas of partnerships,” she added.    

She went on saying: “we are prepared to come together as an entire system to offer an integrated approach targeting Haya Karima villages in partnership with the Government of Egypt, and other stakeholders, to accelerate results and present a model for replication across other villages.”

The celebration is attended by UN‐Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Local Development Minister Mahmoud Sharaawy, Housing Minister Assem el Gazzar and representatives of UN agencies, development partners, private sector, NGOs and academic institutions.

The theme for World Cities Day 2021 is "Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience" reflecting the fact that climate change will have a huge impact on city residents with hundreds of millions of them experiencing floods, rising sea levels, storms and increasing periods of extreme temperatures.

World Cities Day was established in 2013 by the United Nations General Assembly. The first World Cities Day was held in October 2014.