UN praises Egypt's Decent life initiative, says it meets SDGs goals

CAIRO – 25 February 2021: The United Nations has praised Egypt’s “Decent Life” initiative has contributed to mitigating the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic through improving the standards of living conditions of the most needy groups.

In a report, the UN said the initative has also provided job opportunities through supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

It added the goals of the initiative are to be achieved through providing decent housing, water and sanitation for deprived families, and medical and educational services, establishing micro-projects for those most in need and providing in-kind support periodically to most in need families.

Decent Life initiative is an initiative endorsed by President Abdel Fattah el Sisi, with the main objective of improving the quality of life in the poorest rural communities within the framework of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030, through decreasing multidimensional poverty and unemployment rates.

The initiative has four pillars: first: improving living-standards and investing in human capital; second: developing infrastructure services; third: raising the quality of human development services; fourth: economic development.

The initiative provides poorest villages with increased access to the basic services such as health, education, water and sanitation, it said.

The first phase was launched in January 2019, targeting to cover 375 villages across Egypt, the UN said.

By launching the second phase, in January 2021, the number of targeted villages increased to 1500, with the number of beneficiaries representing 20% of the overall Egyptian population, it added.

The initiative comes as an affirmation of the state's willingness to implement the participatory planning approach through integrating citizens in the need’s identification stage, along with the government and civil society's participation in the implementation and monitoring process

 

All you need to know about Hayaa Karema mega national initiative

In 2019, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi launched Hayaa Karema [Decent Life] initiative with the aim of developing the most-needy countryside villages within a time frame of three following years.

This project unified the efforts of both government and civil society to raise the life standard of these villages along with improving their living conditions.

This initiative includes developing the lives of nearly 175 towns and 4209 villages. A total budget of LE 515 billion were allocated for the project.

The first phase

The first phase of the initiative began in July 2019 with developing 375 villages considered to be among the poorest in 14 different governorates allover the country. The services provided to the villages were in the sectors of health, education, drinking water, electricity and gas, roads and transportation along with sports and environmental services.

Up to 4.46 million people benefited of Hayaa Karema in its first phase with total projects and services of a LE 13.5 billion coast.

Up to 600 national projects were implemented in this phase, as another 1580 are expected to be completed by the end of 2021.

23 NGO participated in developing the life standards of several families spotted living in sever poor conditions under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Up to 52,000 social interventions and aids were needed as part of the initiative’s developing strategy.

The second phase

On December 28, 2020, Sisi announced launching the second phase of Hayaa Karema to include another 1376 villages distributed in different 20 governorate with a total of LE 150 billion investments and 18 million beneficiaries.

Up to 20 different authority and Ministry in Egypt are participating in the national initiative with efforts and data. Also, nearly 23 NGO and hundreds of volunteers are taking part significantly in all of the projects and stages of the initiative.

Hayaa Karema is a national project that aims to eliminate poverty and help creating a stable, decent, and healthy life for all Egyptians. It sets a plan of providing infrastructure networks in villages, improve all services, implement projects, and help the most vulnerable communities among citizens.

Funding medium small and micro enterprises along with providing educational, cultural services are included in the initiative as part of the mega national initiative.