Egypt directs LE 5.5B to villages in 1st phase of Decent Life Initiative

CAIRO - 17 December 2021: Egypt’s total appropriations directed to the villages of the first phase of “Decent Life" presidential initiative amounted to LE 5.5 billion directed to 1,901 interventions; including LE 3.3 billion in the fiscal year 2019/20, and LE 2.2 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

This came in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development’s mid-term report to monitor and evaluate the impact of the "A Decent Life" presidential initiative. 

Decent Life is an initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in 2019 to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the most vulnerable groups in Egypt.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development pointed out that the first phase of the "Decent Life" initiative, which started in July 2019 until the end of 2020, included 143 villages in 46 centers in 11 governorates, and the number of beneficiaries reached 1.8 million.

Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala el-Saeed affirmed that the Egyptian state works to reduce development gaps between governorates by focusing on developing the villages most in need. She noted that real development occurs at the governorate level and not in a centralized manner and that each governorate has a different competitive advantage, and has different resources. She stressed that spatial justice is one of the goals of the state plan.

El-Saeed referred to the quality-of-life index, which is a composite index that aims to create a quantitative tool that helps measure the impact of the efforts undertaken by the state in the field of developing rural communities within the framework of the "A Decent Life" initiative, and its implications for the state of sustainable development.

About assessing the impact of the initiative on localizing the sustainable development goals; The report issued by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development indicated that for the third goal of the sustainable development goals related to good health and well-being, there is an improvement in the rate of health services coverage by about 24 percentage points.

She confirmed that 255 medical convoys, 1,335 surgeries, provisions of 538 prosthetic devices, 5420 eye operations, provision of 16,500 medical glasses, completed the establishment and development of 12 health units, and 56 health units were to be completed by 2020/21.

As for the fourth goal (quality education); The report indicated an improvement in the rate of educational services coverage by about 12 percentage points, as educational services were provided in 3 deprived villages, the development of 7 nurseries was completed. Furthermore, 45 schools were established or developed, including 717 classrooms were completed. 127 schools include 1493 semesters during 2020/21.

Regarding the sixth goal (clean water and sanitation), sanitation coverage improved by about 46 percentage points. This was achieved through the installation of 706 domestic sewage tanks, 1559 domestic sewage connections, and water networks of 7 km long.

Also, 1,637 household connections have been installed, 49 groundwater wells have been constructed and developed, sewage service-connected to 21 villages, and the service will be delivered to 55 villages in 2020/21.

On the eighth goal of the sustainable development goals (decent work and economic growth), the report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development indicated that small projects worth LE 438 million and 71,000 job opportunities were provided in the governorates of Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Qalyubia, Minya, Aswan, and Luxor. Lake, New Valley.

The report also reviewed the assessment of the impact of the "A Decent Life" initiative on the achievement of the eleventh goal of the sustainable development (sustainable cities and communities) in the villages of the initiative.

It indicated that 11,600 houses were improved, 160km of roads were paved, and 11 veterinary units were established. Nevertheless, the initiative installed 11,000 lighting poles, established and developed 21 youth centers and playgrounds, in addition to establishing and developing 9 social units.