Egypt - United Nations Development Programme

Box VI: Impact on the intellectual level and on partners in development
A) Intellectual level
• Initiated by UNDP, the NHDRs created lively debates within intellectual circles,
especially the first four to five reports. They also attracted media attention. There
has been an HDI at the governorate level since the beginning. After that, however,
fatigue appeared (interviews).
• The involvement of regional universities, municipal executives, district heads etc.
led to their capacity building and sensitization (interviews).
• NHDRs had the obvious impact of triggering debate among the intelligentsia,
government and NGOs. They directed government programmes in all sectors
(interviews).
• CIDA and German funding helped organize training for 18 journalists. Topics
selected were HD, and HDRs at global, national, regional and governorate levels
(interviews).
• In fact, an Egyptian analyst went so far as to write that the “…report is considered
one of the most important scientific events witnessed in Egypt in 1994.” (UNDP,
1995)
B) Partners in development
• Based on the 2002/03 report, MISR was established, covering the lowest 58
marakiz in 10 governorates as well as the neediest villages. MISR is supported by
Holland, Canada and UNDP (interviews).
• Based on the 2004 NHDR (decentralization), the Dutch government supported
institutional reform and decentralization in the water sector. Eight million Euros
were allocated, and the Dutch contribution of 20 million Euros triggered the
mobilization of US $250 million from the World Bank in support of the
Integrated Irrigation and Management Improvement Project. Based on that report
also, amendment of Law 12 was introduced and a national water resource plan for
2017 was prepared (interviews).
• The World Bank is conducting poverty profiling for Egypt, and is considering the
proposal of conditional cash transfers instead of in kind subsidies. The HDR’s
annexes were very useful for that exercise, since the Bank is interested in
statistical trends (interviews).
• One of the most important impacts of the decentralization report was its use in the
World Bank’s programming process. The Bank created a matrix out of the
report’s recommendations and used this as a starting point for negotiations with
the government to support decentralization efforts (interviews).
• USAID held a regional conference for Asia and the Near East on decentralization
and local governance in December 2004/January 2005. The 2004 report was
presented by the Minister of Local Development and the Minister of Education
and widely discussed at the conference (interviews).
• Based on the 2004 report, a US $13 million project was initiated with the Ministry
of Local Development in September 2005. The Prime Minister provided a written
41