Egypt’s ‘pioneering’ SDG mapping approach can be replicated for the region’s advancement heard the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF). Egypt’s pioneering strategy includes linking Official Development Assistance (ODA) with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and this mapping can be retraced for the region’s development and others.
H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, opened the second day of the inaugural Egypt-ICF by explaining how the ODA-SDG mapping model can help better understand the real-world impact of sustainable development projects on citizens in developing economies around the world.
Underlining the importance of working with other countries to develop their own bespoke ODA-SDG mapping models, Al-Mashat said: “We will not be able to move forward unless we have strength and multilateralism.
“We need to be more inclusive, there needs to be predictability when it comes to financing and the importance of multilateralism to accelerate the [sustainable development] goals,” she said, outlining the integral role of the ODA-SDG map can play in empowering developing economies.
The Ministry of International Cooperation is advocating for inclusive and meaningful participation including the corporate sector and civil society in light of the Egyptian government’s political will.
“All the UN projects are being implemented through NGOs and civil society across Egypt. [The ODA-SDG model] offers a robust example of how we can align globally on the sustainability agenda because of its adoptability and scalability.”
Egypt’s ODA-SDG mapping exercise, which began earlier this year, revealed how the country’s 377 ongoing development projects, worth more than $25 billion, were affecting its people and enabling decision-making by highlighting opportunities and gaps in development cooperation, including financial and technical assistance.
The UN’s Resident Coordinator for Egypt, Elena Panova, said Egypt’s “pioneering” ODA-SDG mapping exercise carried out by the country on a national level could become a global practice and support the work done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to map ODA worldwide.
“We believe [the mapping exercise conducted by the Ministry of International Cooperation] could be replicated in other countries,” Panova said at the Egypt-ICF on Thursday, during a workshop entitled, ‘Mapping ODA To SDGs: A Tool for Effective Policy Making’.
“The way forward could be that this methodology is being taken further by [other] countries [thus] complementing the OECD’s work,” Panova said.
Joining H.E. Al-Mashat and Panova for the opening session, Alfredo Abad, Head of Regional Representation, European Investment Bank (EIB), said the pathway set out by Egypt’s ODA-SDG map, “helps us to understand at a government level where we position ourselves.
“This is a very important tool to engage in dialogues with our partners. The challenge is to get accurate data and there are different ways of looking at the same things. But the approach of the Ministry of International Cooperation and the team is commendable. Integrating, including everybody, definitely this is the way.”
Echoing the positive sentiment around the novel mapping model, Marina Wes, Country Director, Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, Middle East and North Africa, at the World Bank Group, said: “It’s incredibly important for future decision-making prioritization. It’s really pathbreaking to see the leadership taking on this. I want to emphasize the timeliness of this exercise, as many of us prepare new strategies to recover from the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Walid Kamal, Country Manager, UNAIDS – Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, said achieving the SDGs will help overcome the HIV-AIDS epidemic. “After 40 years of efforts and work including different strategies and policies, I believe the SDGs are maybe the cornerstone for ending the HIV-AIDS epidemic, especially when we look at developing countries,” he said.
