Report: A Decent Life Initiative & Sustainable Development Goals

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development issued a report on Wednesday to follow up and evaluate the impact of the presidential initiative “A Decent Life.”

The report pointed out that the first phase of the initiative - which kicked off in July 2019 until the end of 2020 - included 143 villages in 46 centres in about 11 governorates, bringing the number of beneficiaries to 1.8 million.

Assessing the impact of the initiative on achieving the sustainable development goals; The Ministry's report said that "A Decent life" was able to achieve several achievements in terms of the third, fourth, sixth, eighth, and eleventh goals, as follows:

First - the third goal (good health and well-being):

The health service coverage rate improved by 24 percentage points during the first phase of the Decent Life initiative through the Execution of 255 medical convoys, 1,335 surgeries, 538 prosthetic devices, 5420 eye surgeries, and 16.5 thousand eyeglasses.

The completion of the establishment and development of 12 health units and the completion of 56 health units during the fiscal year 2020/2021.

Second- Fourth Goal (Quality Education):

The coverage rate of educational services improved by about 12 percentage points by doing the following:

Providing educational services in 3 disadvantaged villages, completing the development of 7 nurseries, and eradicating illiteracy for 3,000 citizens.

The completion of the establishment and development of 45 schools, including 717 classrooms, with the construction of 127 schools, including 1493 classrooms, by the end of the fiscal year 2020/2021.

Third - Sixth Goal (Clean Water and Sanitation):

The sanitation coverage rate increased by 46 percentage points thanks to the following efforts:

- Installing 706 domestic sewage tanks and 1559 domestic sewage connections.

- Extending water networks with a length of 7 km, in addition to installing 1,637 water connections to homes, establishing and developing 49 groundwater wells, and connecting a sewage service to 21 villages.

Fourth - Goal Eight (Decent Work and Economic Growth):

Small projects worth 438 million pounds were provided and 71 thousand job opportunities were created in the governorates of Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Qalyubia, Minya, Aswan, Luxor, Beheira and New Valley.

Fifth - Goal Eleven (Sustainable Cities and Communities):

The Decent Life initiative's team was able to make many achievements during the first phase only in relation to the eleventh goal of the sustainable development goals, which can be summarized as follows:

- Raising the efficiency of 11.6 thousand homes, paving roads with a length of 160 km, and establishing and developing 11 veterinary units.

- Installing 11,000 lighting poles, establishing and developing 21 youth centres and a five-a-side playground, in addition to establishing and developing 9 social units.

All the above-mentioned achievements by the Decent Life contributed to an improvement in the quality of life index in the villages, which developed during the first phase by about 18 percentage points and a decrease in the average poverty rate by about 14 points.