Thanks to 'A Decent Life', Poverty Rate Decreased by 11%

Nawal Sayed

A Decent Life initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in 2019 succeeded in reducing the poverty rate by 11 percent; leading to an improvement in the quality of life index related to the availability of essential services.

The initiative covers 375 villages in 14 governorates. It was able to make great progress towards settling the sustainable development goals, which is reflected in improving infrastructure and human services in rural areas.

The Rural Development Project is the first project that improves the standard of living of all Egyptian rural residents, as it covers more than 4,500 villages, with a total of 175 centers in 1436 villages in 20 governorates.

The presidential initiative considers A Decent Life, as a lifeline for citizens in villages as it works to develop rural villages, develop the poorest villages, and improve and raise the standard of living for the poorest families.

The Decent Life Initiative aims to improve the lives of nearly 60 million Egyptian citizens, with 9 goals, most notably raising the social, economic, and environmental levels of the targeted families.

In July, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development issued a report 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 centers 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)

Second- Fourth Goal (Quality Education)

Third – Sixth Goal (Clean Water and Sanitation)

Fourth – Goal Eight (Decent Work and Economic Growth)

Fifth – Goal Eleven (Sustainable Cities and Communities)

A study by the Egyptian Center for Thought and Studies revealed that this project is being implemented in three phases. The first includes villages with poverty rates of 70% or more. The second includes villages with poverty rates from 50% to 70%, and the third includes villages with poverty rates less than 50%.