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NWFE mobilized $4bn investments in 2 years for renewable energy projects, 3 governorates honored for joining Green Village initiative
Egypt’s Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) program has succeeded in mobilizing soft financing and attracting private sector investments worth $4 billion in two years, to implement renewable energy projects.
Moreover, the governorates of Gharbia, Monoufia, and the New Valley were honored for joining the “Green Village” initiative, while three villages were qualified to comply with the latest global environmental standards of the World Green Building Council and obtain the “Rationalization” certificate for green rural communities.
It is worth noting that Egypt is one of the first countries in the Middle East and North Africa to adopt the approach of greening local investments through the Green Village initiative.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Rania Mashat addressed the annual issuance by the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation of “Citizen Investment Plans” for all governorates, which include detailed information on the most important development indicators and the sectoral distribution of projects in the plan year, to enable citizens to follow up on projects being implemented within their governorate, contributing to the integration of citizens into the planning and monitoring systems.
Mashat said the government has launched Egypt’s integrated national financing strategy and the 2nd progress report on the NWFE program. These efforts are part of a consistent and integrated national effort to prepare for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Spain in June 2025, which aims to formulate a more inclusive and equitable international vision to address development challenges and establish a more efficient and effective global financial structure to enhance financing for development.
This came during her speech at the National Conference to announce the winners of the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects, under the patronage and presence of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, and the presence of Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, Alessandro Fracassetti, UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt, and a number of national officials, development partners, and officials of the winning companies in the initiative.
Mashat expressed gratitude to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi for his gracious patronage of the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects, his continuous support for the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation, and the efforts made in the transition to a green and sustainable economy.
She also thanked Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly for his presence throughout this journey, launching initiatives and strategies that support Egypt’s development efforts.
Mashat pointed to the significant challenges facing the world, which contribute to exacerbating development gaps and increasing demand for financing. The “High-Level Expert Group” report issued during the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan indicates the need to increase green financing to about $6.3 trillion annually by 2030. The report also estimates that developing and emerging countries need $2.3 trillion annually in green investments to address climate challenges and that these countries need to allocate 6.5% of their GDP to climate action by 2030.
Mashat stressed that successive shocks have increased the challenges facing developing countries, narrowed the fiscal space, and upped debt costs. This confirms that overcoming these challenges will not be possible for governments alone. It requires an effective contribution from international financial institutions, the establishment of the concept of fair financing, and the expansion of innovative financing mechanisms, particularly debt-for-climate swaps, to mobilize private sector investments and reduce the burdens on emerging countries’ budgets.
Other challenges include the implementation of the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which poses a challenge for emerging countries to adapt to in order to maintain the competitiveness of their products and exports.
Mashat emphasized the necessity to combine awareness efforts, integrate development and climate action goals into national strategies, and localize these goals at the governorate level to encourage innovative local solutions.
National Efforts:
Mashat noted the national efforts made by the Egyptian government over the past years, especially since Egypt’s presidency of the COP27 climate conference. Egypt effectively contributes to raising the voice of developing and emerging countries in all international forums, calling for the importance of establishing the concept of equitable and fair financing.
Mashat said that to achieve this, the government has launched many national strategies and initiatives of an international nature, and practical and innovative solutions to translate commitments into implementation and bridge development gaps through various financing mechanisms, most notably the “Sharm El-Sheikh Guide to Just Financing,” which sets guidelines and instructions for applying this concept.
Mashat pointed out that one of the most important steps is the country platform for the “NWFE” program, which has succeeded in mobilizing soft financing and attracting private sector investments worth $4 billion in two years, to implement renewable energy projects with a capacity of 4.2 gigawatts, by adopting innovative financing tools, including debt swaps, grant platforms, and technical support. The program has received significant international support from international institutions and multilateral development banks and has become a model that countries seek to replicate to integrate climate and development efforts.
Mashat added that the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation is working through various mechanisms and tools to integrate environmental sustainability standards into the investment plan and green public investments to achieve low-emission economic growth.
Green Investments:
The minister continued that this is achieved through the application of the “Environmental Sustainability Standards Guide,” which the ministry implemented in cooperation with national authorities. This has contributed to increasing the proportion of green projects included in the investment plan to total public investments from 15% in 2020/2021 to 50% in the 2024/2025 fiscal year. The target is to increase it to 55% in the next fiscal year’s plan.
She explained that to ensure the sustainability of these efforts, the ministry, in cooperation with the OECD, has launched a guide for preparing the general plan for economic and social development. This guide aims to enhance the state’s efforts to implement Egypt’s Vision 2030, in line with the UN goals and the African Agenda 2063, based on key pillars; shifting from focusing on project quality to policy quality, analyzing project feasibility, sustainability, and environmental impact assessment, and analyzing the cost and social, economic, and environmental returns. Human resources in various ministries are currently being trained to effectively implement this guide.
Mashat revealed that starting from the 2026/2027 fiscal year, the medium-term budget framework will be implemented to prepare the economic and social development plan every three years, to activate the new planning law. This will maximize the national trend towards increasing public investment greening efforts.
Mashat noted that the transition to a green economy is a key pillar of the National Structural Reform Program. Under this program, many measures have been implemented in the water, food, energy, and other priority sectors, which have contributed to increasing green investments.
She pointed to the International Monetary Fund’s approval of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility for Egypt, worth $1.3 billion. Through this facility, the government is working to implement a set of structural reforms to support the implementation of the National Climate Change Strategy 2050. Egypt has already implemented the first reform under this facility by adding two new mitigation and adaptation projects to the country platform for the “NWFE” program.
Mashat added that in light of the above, the ministry has launched the Integrated National Financing Strategy for Development, making Egypt one of only 86 countries worldwide to adopt this approach. The strategy is a unified and integrated framework that includes all the efforts, mechanisms, initiatives, and strategies mentioned earlier, to mobilize financing for development through local and external, public and private resources, as well as foreign direct investments, to fill development financing gaps in priority sectors.
The National Initiative for Green Projects:
Regarding the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects, which enjoys the generous patronage of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Mashat stated that the initiative is a model of innovative partnerships between many national entities, development partners, UN organizations, civil society organizations, and governorates, to provide a unique experience in localizing climate action at the local level.
She added that since its launch, the initiative has contributed to achieving significant results and gains, reflected in the wide participation of large, small, medium, and emerging companies, with more than 5,700 projects submitted in the 3rd round, covering development areas of utmost importance to the state, including sustainable agriculture, energy, waste recycling, rationalizing water consumption and efficiency, and reducing emissions.
Mashat explained that 354 qualified projects were selected at the governorate level, in a framework of transparency and cooperation among various initiative partners, and today we announce 18 winning projects, crowning innovative ideas whose owners succeeded in turning them into tangible reality.
She addressed the results achieved by the initiative over three rounds, including contributing to building youth capacities and enhancing a culture of innovation, integrating and intensifying efforts to adapt to climate change, and the initiative contributes to enhancing the interaction of governorates and local authorities with environmental dimensions in development.
Mashat emphasized that the initiative has enabled winning companies to present their innovative solutions at the international level, through participation in the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, as well as COP29 in Azerbaijan.
Climatech Run International Startup Competition Report:
In connection with the initiatives adopted by the ministry to support climate action, Mashat pointed out that a report on lessons learned and recommendations from the Climatech Run international startup competition, which was held during the COP27 and COP28 climate conferences, has been completed, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, to use these recommendations to enhance the startup business environment through the ministerial entrepreneurship group.
Sustainable Development Goals Localization Reports:
Mashat highlighted the launch of the 2nd edition of the sustainable development goals localization reports, prepared in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, which is one of the planning tools that adds a new dimension to the financing equation applied in determining the volume of investments in various governorates.
Mashat added that the 2nd edition of the reports builds on the 1st edition, including a number of developments in light of the government’s continuous efforts to monitor and evaluate sustainable development indicators at the national and local levels. The reports also include an analysis of each governorate’s performance in achieving the national development goals, an assessment of their progress in achieving their targets, a comparison and ranking of each governorate’s performance in implementing the sustainable development goals, and the provision of data to ensure informed and evidence-based decisions, effective guidance of development efforts, and response to local needs.
Mashat mentioned that to ensure the sustainability of the report preparation process, the ministry has developed an interactive digital platform to display and analyze sustainable development goal indicators at the governorate level, providing an overview and comprehensive view of the status of various goals, and presenting a complete picture of the status of sustainable development goals.
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