Monday, January 28, 2013
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UN Secretary-General Urges
Peaceful Transition After Mubarak Resignation
 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called again for a transparent, orderly and peaceful transition in Egypt after hearing of President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down after weeks of anti-government protests, and commended the Egyptian people for making their voices heard. READ MORE
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Arab Knowledge Report 2009
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Business Solutions
for Human Development
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National Strategy
for Microfinance
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2010 Egypt
Human Development Report
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International Forum on Pathways to Democratic Transitions - Download Summary Report on Country Experiences, Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead (Arabic - English)
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UNDP in Egypt
In fulfillment of its Human Development mandate, UNDP remains fully committed to supporting the people and government of Egypt in finding their own solutions to development challenges and building a better life.The dramatic events that began on the 25th of January 2011, and the rapidly shifting political, economic and social environment, provide Egypt and its development partners with new development opportunities. Along with the rest of the UN development system, UNDP is responding to the new needs Egyptian citizens face as they work to build a new Egypt that fulfills their demands for “dignity, freedom and social justice”. At the same time, UNDP remains engaged on a wide range of development issues that have been on the country’s agenda for some time and which require sustained attention. As such, the UNDP Egypt Country Office will continue to operate in its core areas of: Democratic Governance; Poverty Reduction; and Environment and Energy.In the area of poverty reduction, UNDP continues to focus on inclusive growth and job creation through strengthening the policy environment and support services for Small and Medium Enterprises and facilitating their access to credit. UNDP is also helping better target the poor by enhanced poverty monitoring and promoting policies that enhance integrated social development, social protection schemes including Conditional Cash Transfer.In the area of strengthening sustainable management of the natural environment, UNDP continues to help the Government of Egypt build its capacities and develop adaptation options and local solution to Climate Change, including such options as energy efficiency and water management. UNDP is also supporting the Government promote and make gains in the area of biodiversity, protected areas and wildlife conservation. Given the nature of the democratic transition and UNDP’s mandate, UNDP’s programmatic priorities in Egypt from mid-2011 until the end of 2012, will focus on four major pillars:
1. Supporting expanded and effective political participation
2. Supporting greater transparency and accountability
3. Promoting a culture of human rights
4. Supporting local development, poverty reduction and social justiceTo support expanded and effective political participation, UNDP’s support includes strengthening the national dialogue for democratic transition, enhancing knowledge of other country experiences in times of democratic transition, enhancing the political participation of women, and enhancing political participation through civic education.UNDP supports greater transparency and accountability by reinforcing integrity and anti-corruption measures. It will also explore options for supporting the oversight functions of the newly elected Parliament and other similar options.UNDP helps promote a culture of human rights and enhance access to justice through a number of activities that aim to strengthen human rights institutions and build the capacities of rights practitioners in the public sector and civil society. They also aim at further strengthening the culture of human rights by introducing it to the curriculum of higher education institutions and enhancing access to justice for vulnerable groups so they are able to fulfill their basic rights. In supporting local development, poverty reduction and social justice, UNDP aims, through a number of initiatives to reduce poverty through local governance and decentralization measures, innovative Information Communication Technology for Development, as well as through the creation of jobs and effective poverty monitoring for evidence based policy-making.
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UNDP
is planning to address key emerging issues identified in the 2010 Egypt Human Development Report entitled Youth in Egypt: Building Our Future. The Report
analyzed from a human development perspective the opportunities and constraints
that today face Egypt’s sizeable youth population, where 25 percent of
Egyptians are between the ages of 18 and 29 and 40 percent are between the ages
of 10 and 29.
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The Egypt Human Development Report 2010 maintained that Egypt’s youth can be a formidable force for development if conditions are put in place for an inclusive society where all young Egyptians feel valued and are afforded opportunities to learn well, find decent work, have a voice, engage productively in the community, afford marriage, and establish their own homes.
The Report proposed nine key areas of action required to maximize opportunities for Egypt’s youth to lead full and productive lives; form their own families; join institutions and organizations in their societies; and engage in a wider national and global context.
The nine ‘messages’ of the Egypt Human Development Report 2010 suggest a reorientation by both government and civil society -- a new paradigm that ensures:
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• that young people’s aspirations are respected;
• that they are included in national planning and implementation mechanisms; • that youth are permitted to participate in ‘responsive governance’ with administrative and political bodies likely to shape their future;
• that education system failures are tackled and overcome;
• that poverty among youth and its main attributes, namely lack of education and skills, are addressed;
• that tolerance and respect for the other are promoted, whether directed at religious or gender affiliation; and
• that the necessary facilities are provided for financing start-up projects or ownership of assets by youth.
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The nine ‘messages’ of the Egypt Human Development Report 2010 are as follows:
Message 1: Overcoming Education System Failure: Policy makers and educators alike should strive to achieve a better match between the outputs of educational institutions at all levels and the demands of the labour market.
Message 2: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: Poverty Reduction efforts must focus on youth, given the two-way interaction between poverty and its attributes, namely lack of education and skills, and absence of decent jobs.
Message 3: Job Creation: Many job opportunities exist in the formal and informal private sectors, but the state must bear its responsibility in making these jobs respectable, safe and rewarding.
Message 4: Focus on Culture: There is growing evidence of regression in attitudes of tolerance and respect of the other. Following decades of neglect, the culture of invention and innovation among young people needs to be reinvigorated through open-mindedness, which will unleash the energy of future leaders to create novel solutions to current problems.
Message 5: Eliminating Gender Discrimination: The exclusion of young girls and women is still a serious problem in Egypt. A mix of legislative and programmatic interventions is needed to fight culturally rooted sources of discrimination.
Message 6: Youth Well-Being: The National Youth Council should take the lead in issuing an annual review of the National Youth Well-Being Index, which was prepared as part of the 2010 EHDR to assess progress on youth indicators in access to services, income and deprivation, gender, employment, as well as civic participation, family life, leisure, and security.
Message 7: Youth and Governance: Enhancing youth participation for ‘responsive governance’ will improve government performance. Furthermore, strict abidance by a merit-based Human Resource Management system would limit nepotism and patronage as entry points to employment or to promotion.
Message 8: Youth and Migration: The benefits of migration from the perspective of employment and remittances far outweigh the cost of brain-drain - especially given Egypt’s current youth bulge. However, the state should support migration under a holistic and institutionalized approach that is dictated by the current structure of Egypt’s human resources.
Message 9: Breaking the Asset Constraint: Providing youth with physical capital assets will open new avenues of employment and prosperity. The purpose is to introduce a key element that caters both for distributive justice and for good investment fundamentals; entrepreneurship needs to start from ownership of some asset in addition to human capital.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE 2010 EGYPT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT WEBPAGE
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Address UNDP Egypt Country Office
CEDARE Building, 2 El Hegaz Street
Roxy, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt Telephone
(+202) 2256 1796 /56 /13 /02
Fax
(+202) 2256 1647
E-mail
registry.eg@undp.org
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