Growth rate among investments of most needy villages hit 1500% in 3 years

CAIRO – 18 July 2021: Decent Life initiative is a national project that is witnessing the participation of all state agencies and institutions as well as the private sector and civil society, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development,  Hala El-Said said Sunday.

This came in a report that is recently issued by Ministry of Planning on the national project for the development of Egyptian rural villages, entitled “Decent Life”.

The report highlighted how the Decent Life initiative converges with 14 sustainable development goals, (The Report) also focused on the main features and characteristics of the project.

El-Said added that the cost of the aforementioned project reaches more than LE 700 billion.

The project covers all the UN sustainable development goals (UN SDGs) in its various dimensions.

 “The strategic objectives of the project are based on evidence that includes indicators of poverty, unemployment, and quality of life,” El-Said explained.

Concerning the strategic objectives of the "Decent Life" initiative, El-Said said improving living conditions, investing in people, upgrading the level of infrastructure, and boosting the quality of human development services are among the most strategic objectives of the project.

El-Said stressed that the growth rate among the investments of the villages most in need in the last three years reached 1500%.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development indicated that the "Decent Life" initiative coincides with the first goal, "Eradicating Poverty" in terms of reliance on the "multi-dimensional" poverty rate as one of the most important criteria for targeting and taking into account the delivery of utilities to villages and Kufur (village dependencies).

Moreover, the initiative converges with Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture through the project of lining canals and a modern irrigation system as well as the development of slaughterhouses in a standardized style, and the transfer of agricultural and livestock production assets.

The report referred to Goal 3: Good health and well-being with which the initiative converges in terms of developing central hospitals within the framework of the comprehensive health insurance system, primary care centers, ambulance points, and mobile medical clinics.

The "Decent Life" initiative also achieves UN SDG Goal No. 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education) terms of expanding the establishment of schools and classrooms in disadvantaged areas and providing mobile classes (smart spaces) to address the problem of classroom density, community schools, theaters, and mobile libraries.

Similarly, the initiative converges with Goal 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women)  in terms of promoting women’s participation in the labor market (expanding the establishment of nurseries), issuing national ID cards for women, providing family, and childhood services centers, and community services centers.

The report of the Ministry of Planning also confirmed that the "Decent Life" initiative is working to achieve SDG Goal 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all) through the expansion of drinking water and sanitation services (projects + home connections).

The initiative works also to achieve (SDG Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy for All) in terms of delivering natural gas to homes, providing two sources of electrical power for each village to meet any power outage, increasing the voltage to ensure the operation of household appliances, changing electrical transformers/increasing the number of light poles/installing energy-saving LED bulbs, and updating electricity (prepaid) meters.

On the SDG eighth goal, “Decent Work and Economic Growth “, the ministry's report indicated that the initiative “Decent Life" achieved this goal in terms of providing job opportunities for the people of the villages, as 30% of the project workers are from the villagers, and working to achieve financial inclusion, vocational training, and concessional financing for small projects.

 The initiative also achieves SDG Goal 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure in terms of localizing the Egyptian industry and purchases (pump purchases/sewage projects / electric cables/pipes).

The aforementioned goal is being also achieved through the establishment of craft complexes.

It (Decent Life) also achieves SDG Goal 10 (Reduce inequality within and among countries) in terms of providing social rehabilitation centers.

Meanwhile, SDG Goal 11: (Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable) is being implemented through paving roads to improve connectivity indicators and providing decent housing.

Concerning SDG Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, the report explained that the "Decent Life" initiative converges with this goal in terms of implementing and treating triple sewage plants and integrating environmental sustainability criteria: Recovery the Green.

 Moreover, the initiative converges with Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and SDG Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Both goals are being implemented through the formation of village development committees to determine priorities (participatory planning), promoting the social responsibility of the private sector and the banking sector.