SDGs ProgresS in EGYPT

Launch of the Egyptian government's Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030, coincided with the international efforts to achieve an ambitious international development agenda, which is a critical step on the route to sustainable development.
Egypt's 2030 Vision states, "By 2030, Egypt will have a competitive, balanced, and diversified economy based on innovation and knowledge, based on justice, social integration, and participation, with a balanced and diversified ecosystem, investing the genius of place and people to achieve sustainable development and improve Egyptians' quality of life." The government also hopes that with this approach, Egypt would rank among the top 30 nations in the world in terms of economic development, corruption battle, human development, market competitiveness, and quality of life indices.
This strategy has three main dimensions and ten axes: the first is the economic dimension, which includes the axes of economic development, energy, innovation, scientific research, transparency, and the efficiency of government institutions; the second is the social dimension, which includes the axes of social justice, education, training, health, and culture; and the third is the environmental dimension, which includes the axes of the city. in addition to the axis of foreign policy, national security, and domestic policy.

SDG 1 : No Poverty

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Overview: Eliminate extreme poverty for all people wherever they are by 2030, develop appropriate social protection systems and measures at the national level for all and set minimum limits for them.

Background:

Since 2015, the GoE has attempted to ensure the significant mobilization of public resources towards ending poverty in all its forms, ramping up spending on access to basic services as well as on health and education.
In addition to spending on access to basic services, Egypt massively scaled up its social protection programs and safety nets, to achieve substantial coverage of the most vulnerable and prevent the most in need from sliding into poverty.
Poverty rates in Egypt fell 2.8% during the fiscal year of 2019/2020, recording 29.7%, down from 32.5% in 2017/2018.
In case of Tanzania poverty rate dropped by 0.7% from 26.4 in FY 2017/2018 to 25.7 in FY 2019/2020. However, due to COVID-19, there is a great possibility of increasing of poverty rate since several economic activities were stranded.

The path to 2030 leaves an opportunity to strengthen policies that could result in significant poverty reduction by 2030. Consequently, the GoE is committed to capitalizing on this opportunity through continued reinforcement of ongoing efforts as well partnerships towards ending poverty. By 2030, a push towards the SDGs results in a poverty rate of 21.9% and an extreme poverty rate of only 2.3%, lifting millions of Egyptians out of poverty.

Tanzania in its second phase of the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP II), aims at addressing it to start with national efforts through Productive Social Safety Net where more than one million households are covered by the projects with both cash transfer and conditional cash transfers for the households with both children attend to school and disabled. This together with other efforts combined in accelerating poverty-reduction, however, the trend is not much promising, hopefully ,for now, might be less than 49.4 % of 2017 because the country was also mentioned by World Bank as Low Middle Income by 31st July 2019.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Overview: Reducing the global maternal mortality ratio and ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, by 2030 in addition to achieving universal health coverage.

Background:

Egypt affirms the universal right to high-quality healthcare, and the GoE has, in turn, working towards building and maintaining an inclusive and effective healthcare system that guarantees high-quality healthcare services and promotes overall wellbeing. Since then, key national health indicators have maintained the progress such as;
1) Life expectency rate increased from 2010 to 2019 by around 2%.
2) Under-5 mortality rates (by 20.3% in 2019 which is already below the 2030 target of 25%).
3) mortality rate infant decreased from 2015 to 2019 by 2.6%.
4) immunization measles rate increased from 2015 to 2019 by 3%.

In Tanzania life expectancy has been raised by 6.9% from 2010 which was 58.6 to 65.5% 2019, which signifies the improvement of health services especially government budgets, as the country struggles now are to have Universal Health Coverage. To start with the government constructed health facilities in each village from 2017 as it will help to address several issues like decrease of martenal mortality rate, under five mortality rates which now is at the rate of 50.3 death per 1,000 live births. Showing slow progressive infant mortality rate to 36.0% per 1,000 live births in 2019 from 47.3% per 1,000 in 2010.

SDG 4: Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong education for all

Overview: Ensuring that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education, and ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men, and women, achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030.

Background:

Egypt seeks to restructure and formulate the pre-university education system with the aim of achieving the desired goals in addition to improving the competitiveness of the educational system, eradicating alphabetic and digital illiteracy, and reducing the dropout rate from basic education.
In 2018, with the Ministry of Education in the lead, the government embarked on a full education reform and transformation program, internationally dubbed “Education 2.0”. The program is planned to be completed by 2030, aligned with Egypt’s Vision 2030

Despite, Egypt offers free education to millions of citizens in tens of thousands of schools and dozens of universities, literacy rates are not increasing.
Literacy rates among Egyptian adults, particularly in rural areas, are lower according to age.
The National Literacy Programme is failing to attract a requisite level of adult students who never had the opportunity to attend school or who dropped out of education.
In tanzania, data of 2016 t0 2019 is missing but it is hope that it is doing well because of the trend, the government through ministry of education implements two programs which are Complementary Basic Education and Training (COBET) aimed to meet the need of out of school children aged 9-18th and Intergrated Community Basic Adult Education (ICBAE) which intends to cater youth and adults with the age of 19 and above. Both programes have proved progressive as 2010 (94.5%) and 2016 (99.2%) displays.

This program includes continuous professional and capacity development for teachers and introducing new teaching techniques, that’s why the percentage of trained teachers raised from 2018 to 2019.

To this Tanzania is doing good despite the fact that there is a challenge of accessing the data but as seen from 2010 trained teachers is 94.9% hopefull by 2019 it may be over that since 2016 when the government introduced free education also increased the budget of ministry of education including loan board and teachers and students who attend university to undertake teaching courses from diploma to bachelor degrees were provided with loans unconditional. Also special traings are frequently conducted in collaboration of two ministry education and local government authority.

Because of the education reform, there is decreasing in the pupil-teachers ratio, comparing this ratio with the middle east and north Africa, Egypt success in decreasing this ratio.

In this indicator Tanzania still faces a great challenge as observed in the graph the ratio still high 20.86 of 2018 is not promissing and this due to the implementation of free education policy. However, the removal of civil servants with fake certificates in 2017 to 2018 affected education sector since majority were teachers and health personnel.

The gross enrollment ratio is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the level of education shown. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects s history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music.
In 2019, the gross primary enrollment ratio in Egypt amounted to 106.41 percent, showing a slight increase compared to 106.29 percent in 2018.
The changes of Tanzania as the figure of 2010 shows impressive progressive of 102.8 compared to 96.0 of 2020, The country was in critical situation in every sector before the decrease was the result of the establishement of the ICT system of registration where it was realized that headteachers and headmesters previous incresed the number of students in securing the huge funds from the government which is given depends on the number of students (capitation).In general there was more that 200,000 ghost students registered manually. But when it comes to justify in the system they failed to do so. But in the real scene free education increased the enrollment from 2016 it is seen to drop as compared with the previous data.

In 2019, the gross secondary enrollment ratio in Egypt amounted to 89.5 percent, showing an increment compared to 87.9 percent in 2018.
Over the decade under review, the enrollment ratio peaked in more recent years.
Moreover, the ratio followed an increasing trend with a significant rise of close to 20.6 percentage from 68.9 percent in 2010
In Tanzania extra efforts is needed to this indicator, despite the fact that such education is free but still a lot of challenges face students in secondary school as the result some do not join even if they are given the opportunity to join by the government due to the fact that schools are day not baording and they are bit far from their place of resides. For those who dare to send,parents have to rent rooms for thier children of 13 to 14th of age to stay a lone, which in turn again results to adolocent pregrancy and for boys engaging in the unethical behaviours. This also leads to droup out of the school. That is why Tanzania is below even SSA average.

SDG 5: Gender Equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Overview: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, and ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life

Background:

Egypt promotes strengthening the capacities of public and private institutions to promote the economic and social empowerment of women.
In 2020, Egypt ranked 134th out of the 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index. It ranked 140th out of 153 countries in women’s economic participation and opportunity.
In 2020, Egyptian women held 45% of all government jobs, which is high compared to the global average of 32%.
Women received 8 ministerial portfolios within the Council of Ministers in 2020/2021, 24% of ministerial positions, compared to 11.8% in 2018.
For this indicator, Tanzania is doing good progress for that matter as the trend shows positve progressive in 2010 it was 36.00% and in 2020 is 36.70 and there is likely now to up more since among three branches of government two are led by Women (Executive and Parliment). Tanzania is above the average of SSA and Middle East & North Africa.

Egypt is ranked 16th globally in the percentages of women representation in Parliament, as women won 162 seats in the 2020 Parliament accounting for 27% in the House of Representatives اhiger than previous years. that is because supported by the political leadership and civil society for women.

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Ensure availabilty and sustainable management of water and sanitation

Overview: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by targeting Improve water quality by reducing pollution, and Support and strengthening the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.

Background:

In FY 2020/2021, the GoE directed 25.9% of the total public investments in the urban development sector to water and wastewater projects. Moreover, in 2020, the Ministry of Housing announced the completion of 295 projects for drinking water at a cost of ~USD 2.4 billion. The government also delivered sanitation services to 703 villages at a cost of ~USD 350 million.
The proportion of the population benefiting from proper management of sanitation services, including handwashing facilities with soap and water rose from 62% in 2015 to 67% in 2020.
Also there are increasing in people using at least basic sanitation services and people using at least basic drinking water services within the same period.
In case of Tanzania as the data shows we are still behind, but there is progressive however, in slow motion due to funds constraints, the country secured loans from India government to implements several projects including supplying clean water from Lake Victoria to the central part which is subjected to semi-desert. Other efforts now is make sure that all villages have to safe water through out the country. Despite the fact that, still Tanzania depends on the trapped water during the rainfall through dams rather than drilling one. However, when compare to SSA we are above of the average in 2020 which is 26.3% in case of managed sanitation services.These efforts will raise the number of people having access to safe drinking water higher than the current 60.7% of 2020.

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Overview: By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, and double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

Background:

Egypt has a surplus in energy allowing it to become a regional exporter of power with around 19,000 MW in daily reserves, and access to electricity, already at near-universal levels increased from 99.3% of the population in 2015 to 100% in 2019.
This notable progress is a result of significant efforts in constructing 26 new electricity stations with a total capacity of 26,000 MW which represents 12 times more than the generated electricity from the High Dam. Three stations were built in partnership with Siemens AG providing a massive total capacity of 14,500 MW. This increased the total generated electricity from 185.6 billion KW in 2015/2016 to 198.8 billion KW in 2018/2019.
In 2014, Egypt had only 18 power transmitting stations for the entire grid and since then 29 new stations have been constructed. Similar work is also ongoing to strengthen the transmission network by adding, replacing, and renewing overhead lines and transformer stations.
For Tanzania, in this indicator as shown that only 37.7% are having access to electricity and a great % is in urban areas. However, the ongoing project Nyerere Hydropower Station constructed by the Egyptian Company is expected to cater the problem of electricty and make sure that more than 14,000 villages are conected and have access to electricity through Rural Electricity Authority. The Plants is expected to produce 2,115 Megawats.

SDG 8: Decent Jobs and Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Overview: Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 percent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries, in addition, to achieving higher levels of economic productivity.

Background:

Egypt seeks to achieve a regulated market economy characterized by stable macroeconomic conditions, capable of achieving sustainable inclusive growth, characterized by competitiveness and diversity, and being an active player in the global economy, capable of adapting to global changes, maximizing added value, and providing decent job opportunities.
Egypt has demonstrated sound economic progress over the past three years, garnering the fruits of the reform program launched in 2016. The program constituted bold and critical macroeconomic measures to stabilize the economy and boost growth.

Egypt’s progress appears in many performance indicators such as GDP growth from 2017 to 2019, which reached a high of 5.6% in 2018/2019.
Despite the macroeconomic stability and high growth, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a setback in Egypt’s GDP growth trajectory reaching 3.5% 2019/2020 compared to an initially projected growth rate of 5.8% in 2019/2020, and 6% in 2020/2021.
However, an Egypt remained one of very few countries worldwide and the only country in the MENA region to register positive growth rates in 2020 despite the repercussions of the pandemic.

Unemployment decreased from 11.7% in 2017 to reach 9.7 % in the year 2019, decreasing by 2 percent.
Despite the noticeable improvement in general unemployment rates since 2017, high youth unemployment still persists.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Build resilient in infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Overview: SDG 9 aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Background Egypt has focused significant effort on releasing its competitive economic capabilities through robust infrastructure, sustainable industrialization, and innovation promotion Egypt is working on implementing major national projects in the sectors of transportation, water, energy, and digitization, in cooperation between the public and private sectors, in order to achieve the ninth goal of sustainable development.

after a successful first phase, which was primarily focused on a macro-fiscal dimension, the GoE launched the Second Phase of the National Structural Reform Program in 2021.
The second phase focuses on boosting Egyptian industrialization in three main sectors: Manufacturing, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Agriculture, which combined account for a contribution to GDP of 26% in 2019/2020.
The target is to raise this contribution to 30% - 35% by 2023/2024.

Regarding the manufacturing, there were a lot of factors affecting this sector, as for Egypt we can see that medium and high tech exports as a percentage of manufactured exports were inceasing because of the incntives & support that were given by the govenrment to the medium and high-tech industries. Moreover as we can see there was an increase on the research and development expenditures as a percentage of GDP which have an effect on improving this sector.
Concerning the Medium and High-Tech Exports as a percentage of manufacturing value-added to the Egyptian economy, Egypt was achieving around 7% economic growth by 2009-2010, but after the economy hit because of two revoultions a lot of factories were closed and many investors left the country as the the economy was not estable and there were uncertainty environment for their investment.
Our conclusion is that the political situation affected the economic situation and that led to negative impact on the steps taken on this SDG.

Gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D), are expressed as a percent of GDP. They include both capital and current expenditures in the four main sectors: Business enterprise, Government, Higher education, and Private non-profit. R&D covers basic research, applied research, and experimental development.
This indicator increased by 0.3 from 2010 to 0.7 in 2015 and settled at 0.7.

The number of researchers engaged in Research & Development (R&D), is expressed as per million, Researchers are professionals who conduct research and improve or develop concepts, theories, models techniques instrumentation, software of operational methods. R&D covers basic research, applied research, and experimental development.
This number increased significantly from 2010 to 2015 and the increase continued until 2018.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable

Overview: SDG 11 aims to enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries by 2030

Background:

Between 2015 and 2020, the GoE spent USD 2.3 billion in the development of unsafe settlements, with USD 20.3 billion more expected to be spent in projects to develop unplanned settlements.
Since 2018, Egypt has begun constructing 22 fourth-generation cities. The focus on fourth-generation cities comes as part of a vision to satisfy the growing population’s need for sustainable cities, offer housing, investment, and job opportunities.

Slums are divided into two main types; unsafe settlements constitute around 1% and unplanned settlements constitute around 37%.
the GoE spent USD 2.3 billion in the development of unsafe settlements, with USD 20.3 billion more expected to be spent on projects to develop unplanned settlements.
In 2018, the proportion of the urban population living in slums decreased from 13.1% in 2010 to reach only 5.2%.

SDG 13: Climate Action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Overview: It aims to enhance resilience and resilience to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

Background:

In 2015, Egypt established the National Council for Climate Change, which aims to establish clear legislation and form an institutional entity to deal with climate change and its effect.
In 2018, the Ministry of Environment implemented a project in cooperation with the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources funded by the Green Climate Fund to “Enhance Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions”. This is a capacity-building project in cooperation with the UNDP, in the field of monitoring, reporting, and verification of GHG emissions and adaptation & mitigation measures.
Egypt is updating its strategy for low-emission development and is working on developing its long-term strategy on climate change until 2050.
Egypt has officially been selected to host the UN Climate Change Conference in November 2022 (UNFCCC COP 27) after years of significant work on countering climate change.

Egypt’s economic growth and expanding urban population are contributing to the rising greenhouse gas emissions. Its fossil fuel-based power and transport sectors are among the most carbon intensive, and are at the center of Egypt’s commitment to increase use of low carbon technologies and renewable resources.

CO2 emissions for Egypt grew slightly from 2010 to 2018, however, it is still small perecntage compared with Middle east & North Africa percentage.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Overview: SDG 17 aims to strengthen and streamlin cooperation between nation-states, both developed and developing, using the SDGs as a shared framework and a shared vision for defining that collaborative way forward.

Background:

Since 2017, Egypt has been organizing the World Youth Forum on an annual basis, engaging with youth globally in an enriching setting, allowing them to exchange views and recommend initiatives to decision-makers and influential figures.
In 2019, Egypt utilized its role as chair of the African Union to strengthen the means of cooperation between African nations in priority areas.

Egypt had two revolutions that affected its economy and its foreign-exchange reserves, which resulted in Egypt's ability to fulfill its dues and debts. Egypt had to borrow from international institutions such as; IMF and the World bank next to the international donors which we can see on the graph starting from the year 2015, but after applying the Economic development plan Egypt economy became more stable and that's why it started depending less on the international institutions.

There is increase in FDI from 2015 to 2019 a round 1%.
Egypt has implemented various structural reforms to improve the business and investment climate such as:

• Establishing the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency in 2018 to promote MSMEs growth.

• Strengthening and empowering the Egyptian Competition Authority.

• Putting in place investment promotion instruments, such as the Investment Map which works as an innovative and interactive software to present investment opportunities by sector and location.

As we can see on the Graph the inflation rate jumped to around 29.5% and this happened because Egypt devaluated its currency by the end of the year 2016, but after that, the Egyptian government adopted different financial and monetary policies to control the increase of the inflation rate which we can see on the decrease starting from the year 2018 until 2020.

Conclusion

Regardless of the magnitude of the effort exerted, the whole world continues to face daunting challenges toward the implementation of the 2030 Agenda; and Egypt is no exception.

1. Financing: Egypt is facing a number of financial challenges, including government debt and budget deficit. Despite the dilution of these challenges right after the successful implementation of the stabilization and reform program initiated in 2016, unfortunately, these challenges have been exacerbated by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring the mobilization of finances in order to provide adequate stimulus packages and protect vulnerable segments on the background of waning government revenues putting stress on the fiscal stance in Egypt.

2. Population growth: One of the main determinants of moving to poverty is family size. Each year more and more public funding is allocated to provide basic services to the growing population.

3. Digital divide: There exists still a significant digital divide between Egypt and developed countries. For example, the internet penetration rate has reached 57.3%, higher than the world average of 51.4% but significantly lower than developed countries' average (86.7%), In Egypt, the digital divide exists in urban and rural and between males and females.

4. Multi-Facet Environmental Challenges: Egypt is facing huge stress on natural resources as a result of multiple factors including population growth, climate change, mounting development needs, as well as the regional and geopolitical situation. In this vein, extreme weather events, water scarcity, land degradation, the growing demand for energy, and the accelerated rates of urban development necessitate new approaches to address these challenges.

References

Egypt's 2021 voluntary national review.
International partnership for sustainable development - Engaging for impact toward our common future - annual Report 2021 for Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation.
Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Report - 2020 - Egyptian General Authority for Statistics.
world bank ( https://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgs/).
Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics).