The Egyptian Government is implementing the Upper Egypt Local Development Programme (UELDP) in two pilot Governorates: Sohag and Qina. The aim of this programme is to create jobs and reduce poverty in the poorest part of the country, by facilitating and sparking business development.

The strategy to achieve this aim focuses on infrastructural investments, decentralization, capacity building, improvement of public services and citizens participation. This mixed and integrated approach is quite unique in recent Egyptian history, and financed with an almost 1 billion USD budget, including a 500 million USD Worldbank loan.  

VNG International Egypt (with local partner CID Consulting) has been contracted by the Egyptian government as the Implementation Support Consultant for the UELD Programme and provides technical assistance and training for the Local Implementation Units (LIU) in 10 fields of interest with a pool of 30 national and international experts.

On the 8th and 9th of August, the VNG International Egypt team provided team building sessions for the LIU’s in the pilot governorates and prepared them for the upcoming mid-term evaluation. Each LIU consists of more than 20 specialists, which are civil servants from the Governorates who combine their regular job in the governorate administration with the implementation of the UELD Programme.

The programme is very prestigious and important for the Egyptian government and should soon function as good practice for the whole of Upper Egypt. Therefore the Local Implementation Units in Sohag and Qina and the Programme Coordinating Office in Cairo are under high pressure to perform.

VNG International is proud to support this important step to decentralization in Egypt and to support increasing the impact of the programme.

Gerrit Jan Schep