CAIRO – 27 October 2020: The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia at the United Nations "ESCWA" ranked Egypt in the first place among Arab countries in terms of implementing national reporting platforms for the sustainable development goals, which is the platform that is launched in cooperation between The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics and the United Nations Children's Fund "UNICEF" with participation in funding from the United Nations Office in Egypt, where the implementation rate reached 50 percent.
Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, clarified that the report evaluates the Arab national platforms for the sustainable development goals, as it revealed that only 9 Arab countries, less than half of the Arab countries, have national platforms for monitoring the sustainable development goals, which impedes data collection and delays the process of achieving sustainable development in countries that do not have these platforms.
Al-Mashat congratulated the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics for this pioneering step at the level of the Arab countries, stressing that Egypt is moving forward towards achieving the goals of sustainable development, and providing the platform in such a way as to monitor the achievement of these goals and make information transparently available to the public about the governmental efforts made in this Regard.
She explained that the ministry has matched all projects within its ongoing development portfolio with multilateral and bilateral development partners, amounting to $25 billion, with the sustainable development goals, to determine the progress made in each goal and to identify future priorities, which will facilitate the work of the national reporting platform on the sustainable development goals.
“Within the portfolio of the Ministry of International Cooperation with development partners, there is a huge number of projects in multiple and vital sectors, including education, transportation, water desalination, new and renewable energy, entrepreneurship, empowerment of women, and other sectors that serve and work to achieve the 17 UN sustainable development goals,” she stated.
Al-Mashat added that the ministry launched a strategy to narrate international posts, to work on presenting Egyptian development stories and efforts to achieve sustainable development, both at home and abroad, through all means of communication, based on three main factors: the citizen is the focus of attention and the ongoing projects and the goal (the sustainable development goals) is the driving force.
The Ministry of International Cooperation supervises the implementation of the strategic framework for partnership with the United Nations and chairs the Steering Committee for the framework with the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt. Working groups on (1) comprehensive economic development (2) social justice (3) sustainability of environmental and natural resources emerge from them. (4) Empowering women.
The national reporting platform on the sustainable development goals “Egypt SDG Observatory” is an innovative digital platform launched by the Sustainable Development Unit of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as it provides data and indicators on the sustainable development goals disaggregated by sectors. The main priority indicators of the United Nations agencies, and the platform also includes sustainable development indicators within the framework of Egypt Vision 2030 and the African Agenda 2063.
Tue, Oct. 27, 2020
