Cairo – Mubasher: The current Partnership Development Framework (UNPDF) under the roadmap established by Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation and the United Nations (UN) aims to provide a comprehensive vision of the upcoming stages in the country, according to a statement by the ministry on Sunday.
The roadmap, which was set up for a framework during the 2023-2027 period, also aims to support the Egyptian government’s priorities in achieving economic and social development in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
The Ministry is responsible for supervising the implementation of the strategic framework with the UN, and is the national coordinator of this partnership, Minister of International Cooperation, Rania El-Mashat, said during a meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, Elena Panova.
El-Mashat said the partnership between the UN and Egypt was highly developed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She referred to the necessity of the new framework to take into account supporting local efforts to combat climate change and to enhance environmental sustainability.
“Egypt has taken several steps forward within this framework and was the first country in the MENA region to issue $750 million in green bonds, in addition to the establishment of a Climate Change Center for Africa in Egypt,” according to the ministry’s statement.
Panova said Egypt took rapid measures to overcome the impacts of the pandemic, thus reflecting positively on the economic indicators and making Egypt the only country in the MENA region and across the globe that maintained a positive growth during the pandemic.
The UN official praised the participation of Egypt’s authorities in implementing the UN’s plan to recover from the economic and social impacts of the pandemic during the period from July 2020 to December 2021.
The two officials also discussed the allocated budget for projects planned for the budget year 2021/2022, with the estimated budget for the implementation of the UNPDF goals standing at $1.2 billion.
The UN has supported Egypt in different areas, including a partnership with the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) for startups in the field of milk collection and cotton, as well as providing technical support for the expansion of social safety net programmes to enable them to reach 203,700 vulnerable families.
The international entity also supported the Arab republic in agriculture while pledging development financing worth $4 million for projects promoting solar thermal energy technology in the industrial sector. The UN has helped to empower 80,000 women through the issuance of national ID cards and the provision of public services, in addition to 43,900 women receiving financial and non-financial services.
It is worth noting that Egypt was one of the 50 founding Member States of the UN in 1945.
