Egypt to implement two deals at $743.3 m to promote SDGs

27 / 08 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Rania el Mashaat said the parliament approved two agreements – at a total value of $743.3 million – with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) which are meant to finance housing projects and the establishment of a wastewater system in the Bahr el Baqar area in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Pushing for a forward-looking vision, the ministry launched the “Global Partnerships for Effective Development Cooperation” multi-stakeholder platform in April 2020, which prioritizes cooperation among international development partners as well as the achievement of the SDGs. It achieves this by holding several workshops with various stakeholders and international institutions to mobilize the international community towards a common goal and identify financing priorities.

“The Ministry of International Cooperation aims to revive international cooperation for the benefit of humanity, focusing on three pillars; ‘People at the Core’, ‘Projects in Action’ and ‘Purpose as the Driver”, Mashaat noted.

To put ‘people at the core’, the ministry has been implementing projects across multiple sectors by signing the first agreement with the IBRD, a member of the World Bank Group, last July, with a value of $500 million in additional financing for the comprehensive program to finance the housing project. This aims to primarily improve the lives of low-income people and obtain their right to adequate housing, which helps to achieve the first goal of SDGs on ending poverty, and the eleventh goal on establishing sustainable cities and communities.

Mashaat explained that the agreement aims to strengthen the capacity of the Social Housing Fund and to support real estate financing through promoting coordination among the authorities concerned, establishing an improved information management system, a structure for sound financial management and government and enhancing evaluation, monitoring and credit capacity, as well as providing support to lower-income families.

She hailed the existing cooperation with the World Bank Group in various sectors to support the country’s development efforts. The portfolio of ongoing projects with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development includes about 16 projects worth $ 4.889 billion, in diverse sectors such as social housing, health, education, local development, social protection, sanitation, petroleum, transportation and the environment.

In the same context, the parliament approved the agreement signed last June with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, with a value of 75 million Kuwaiti dinars, equivalent to 243.2 million dollars, which aims to finance the construction of Bahr el Baqar drainage water system in the Sinai Peninsula.

To improve the lives of communities in Sinai, the project puts environmental sustainability at the heart of development through providing clean water and ensuring the protection of marine and coastal ecosystems in a sustainable manner against pollution. On top of that, it also helps build sustainable cities and communities through providing additional 100,000 job opportunities to help sustain families and improve the services provided to the population.