Egypt

A World of Development Experience

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals.

Our focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of:

Democratic Governance

Poverty Reduction

Crisis Prevention and Recovery

Energy and Environment

UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

The annual Human Development Report, commissioned by UNDP, focuses the global debate on key development issues, providing new measurement tools, innovative analysis and often controversial policy proposals. The global Report's analytical framework and inclusive approach carry over into regional, national and local Human Development Reports, also supported by UNDP.

In each country office, the UNDP Resident Representative normally also serves as the Resident Coordinator of development activities for the United Nations system as a whole. Through such coordination, UNDP seeks to ensure the most effective use of UN and international aid resources.

Striving for a better future: UNDP in Egypt

The United Nations began providing development assistance to Egypt in 1953. In those days this was done through the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance (EPTA). In 1958 the United Nations Special Fund established an office in Cairo to expand the work of EPTA. This office became the United Nations Development Programme Country Office in 1966.

UNDP Egypt is now one of 17 UNDP offices in the Arab region covered by the UNDP headquarters Bureau for Arab States (RBAS), which acts as the link between the UNDP Administrator in New York and the UNDP Resident Representative in the field. Since 1977 the UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt has also been the Resident Co-ordinator of the UN system in the country. In this position the Resident Co-ordinator represents the UN Secretary-General and co-ordinates the operational activities of the UN system at the country level. Currently there are 22 UN agencies represented in Egypt. An addition role of the UNDP Resident Representative is to co-chair the Donor Assistance Group (DAG).

UNDP’s overall mission is to help the Egyptian government in its efforts to reduce poverty and to promote sustainable development policies. Over the past 20 years the nature of UNDP’s support to Egypt has changed and become more focused. This has reflected changes in UNDP worldwide. UNDP Egypt supports activities in four practice areas: Poverty reduction, Energy and Environment, Democratic Governance, and Crisis Prevention and Recovery. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women. Another enormous change has been the move from supporting the implementation of projects by UN agencies to the management and implementation of projects by the Egyptian authorities. Finally, UNDP has become far more conscious of the need to show results in its development work. UNDP Egypt like many other UNDP offices has adopted the so-called “Results Based Management” (RBM) approach. RBM aims to show exactly how UNDP is making a contribution to improving the development situation of the country. UNDP Egypt is now taking this one step further by applying the RBM approach to all of its projects and thus creating a results-orientated project management system.

UNDP's Development Partners

UNDP Egypt's Programme Delivery 2002-2007

UNDP Egypt Expenditure by Fund 2004-2007

UNDP Egypt Expenditure by Project 2004-2007