Egypt’s Planning Ministry launches 1st electronic system for ‘Decent Life’ initiative

CAIRO – 24 January 2021: Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said announced Sunday launching the electronic system supporting the "Decent Life" initiative.

The system will identify the development needs of the villages targeted in the initiative, whilst also preparing a plan for various interventions. It will additionally monitor and evaluate the impact of all efforts in development and the quality of life.

El-Said described the launch as an addition to the ministry’s efforts to shift towards evidence-based planning, automating the process of preparing the plan, and following up on its implementation.

The minister noted the presidential initiative’s importance for providing a dignified life for Egyptian citizens. She added that it aims to relieve the burdens of citizens in the neediest communities in the countryside and informal areas in urban areas.

"The initiative depends on the implementation of a set of service and development activities that would guarantee a decent life for that group and improve their living conditions, while improving the economic, social and environmental level of families in poor villages,” El-Said said, “It will also enable them to obtain all basic services and providing job opportunities to support the independence of citizens, and motivate them to improve the standard of living for their families and their communities.”

The minister emphasized that the new system for the "Decent Life" initiative is the first integrated system of its kind in Egypt. It includes the complete stages of the plan’s preparation process, follow-up, and evaluation of the development impact.

It has been merged with the databases belonging to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), which will be used in making planning decisions.

The system will be integrated with the system of spatial changes, and relies on the methodology of programme and performance plans that link the appropriations directed to projects and the targeted developmental return. It is also features an automatic and instantaneous calculation of the quality of life indicator that the Ministry recently launched.

El-Said said that the system also includes, in its design, advanced analytical capabilities that would enable it to prepare performance follow-up reports. These would monitor the state of development in all the villages, governorates, and centres that are part of the initiative.

The minister noted that this system has become binding on all parties involved in implementing the initiative. This follows Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly’s recent decision to adopt it as a tool for preparing and following up on the “Dignified Life” initiative plan.

The system will be presented at the international and regional level as a successful and pioneering model in the Egyptian state’s adoption of the most advanced planning tools.

At the same time, it consolidates the values of governance, accountability, and transparency, in line with the priorities of the national agenda for sustainable development under Egypt's Vision 2030.

For his part, Assistant Minister of Planning Jamil Helmy, who is responsible for the “Decent Life” initiative file, will monitor the implementation of the sustainable development plan. He said that the inclusion of learning tools in the system’s design has been taken into account, to help spread the culture of performance within the state's administrative apparatus easily.

Helmy added that the coming period will witness intensive training for all parties on how to deal with the system and benefit from the huge amount of data it contains. This data is not limited to the financial aspects for projects and interventions, but also performance indicators, various reports, pictures and realistic videos related to the geographical locations of each project.

For his part, Ashraf Abdel Hafeez, Assistant Minister of Planning for Digital Transformation, indicated that the system comes as the first fruits of the Spatial Change Center at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.

The center was recently established as the connection to geographic information systems and aerial photography was taken into account in the design of the system.

This is done by providing high-resolution satellite images that provide data that serve follow-up and decision-making efforts and provide support for many projects and services provided by the government in various economic, social, and environmental sectors.