The Urban Development Fund (UDF) has developed and redesigned the Ezbet Abu Qarn area in Cairo, transforming it into the Al-Fustat International Park. The park, along with the upscale Al-Fustat Hills residential project, was inaugurated at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli.
The inauguration marked the completion of the development of all unsafe informal areas in 25 governorates, bringing this phase of eliminating unsafe housing that endangered residents’ lives to a close.
According to the cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), the plan to develop unsafe informal areas, launched in 2015, has encompassed 357 unsafe zones in 25 governorates.
Around 1.2 million people have benefited from the programme through the construction of 246,000 housing units costing LE68 billion. Areas in the plan included Duweiqa, Ezbet Al-Haggana, Old Fustat, Tel Al-Aqrab in Sayeda Zeinab, and the Maspero Triangle.
Khaled Seddik, head of the UDF (earlier named the Informal Settlements Development Fund), said that the prevailing perception was that all projects addressing unsafe areas relied on providing alternative housing and focusing on building new housing units to which residents are relocated, such as Asmarat City, Tahya Misr City, and Al-Amal City in Port Said.
However, he noted that some areas suffered from industrial pollution risks, high-voltage power lines, or seeping sewage pipes. In these cases, the new projects had removed the source of the danger threatening people’s lives without the need to relocate them to new housing units. As a result, the number of families benefiting from the development of unsafe informal areas far exceeds those who had benefited from alternative housing units, Seddik explained.
Once the government had completed the projects targeting unsafe areas, it shifted focus to upgrading unplanned neighbourhoods and informal markets. The shift necessitated redefining the UDF’s objectives from informal settlement development to urban development. At present, the number of areas classified as unplanned and structurally deteriorating far exceeds those deemed unsafe, he said.
The urban development stage is expected to extend over several years, the reason being that the areas are spread across Egypt and each has its own distinct characteristics, Seddik added.
The way unsafe informal areas have been handled may not have come without flaws, Seddik admitted. Nonetheless, it was an important development and security priority that the state sought to complete quickly to eliminate threats to people’s lives.
He noted that the fund had adopted flexible plans to address any shortcomings that had arisen during efforts to save these families from danger. In Asmarat, for example, the fund had tried to transform it into a productive community by establishing factories and workshops for handicrafts and textiles in the neighbourhood. This was meant to provide alternative sources of income for those who had lost their livelihoods during the redevelopment process.
At the same time, comprehensive services and utilities previously lacking in the residents’ original areas were provided. Asmarat was connected through public transportation, and a system was put in place to provide upkeep for the newly built housing units through maintenance programmes aimed at preventing deterioration, Seddik pointed out.
Abbas Al-Zaafarani, former dean of the Faculty of Urban Planning in Cairo, approved of the UDF’s approach to unsafe informal areas. He said relocating to developed areas was a positive shift for some residents, particularly employees who commute to workplaces outside their residential neighbourhoods.
However, for a smaller group whose livelihoods were tied directly to the same unsafe or informal areas in which they lived, their integration into new urban areas was more challenging. This group includes the owners of small workshops or of donkey-drawn carts.
Al-Zaafarani said the state had handled the task well and that it was deserving of recognition for its efforts to safeguard the lives of these families.
However, the remaining urban development work is more complex, he said. Estimates suggest that the informal economy accounts for 70 per cent of Egypt’s economy, and roughly the same proportion applies to unplanned urban areas.
The required effort is anything but trivial, he added.
CHALLENGES: The important lesson the government must learn is that despite service deficiencies, infrastructure shortcomings, and urban deterioration in unplanned areas, these neighbourhoods function as independent economic zones.
They comprise residential and commercial units, workshops, factories, and warehouses, rendering them areas where residential and economic activities are deeply intertwined. Ultimately, these areas operate as self-sufficient economic units in which productive, commercial, and residential activities coexist in a complementary manner.
This may explain why many groups tolerate urban deterioration and inadequate services in such areas. They provide them with employment opportunities that align with their capabilities and meet their basic needs without having to shoulder transportation costs.
Alongside the programme targeting the development of dangerous informal and unplanned areas, challenges which have accumulated over decades, urban development is also meant to create a new generation of cities founded on principles of sustainability.
The removal of high-risk sites and the resettlement of residents into planned communities does not merely close an old chapter; it redefines the relationship between people and place and paves the way for a new phase in which planning becomes the norm rather than the exception.
From here comes the role of smart cities and green architecture as mechanisms for implementing sustainability in new urban areas and avoiding the pressures of dense housing.
Urban policies have now shifted from reactive problem-solving to establishing advanced models that provide a comprehensive lifestyle built on planning, intelligent infrastructure, and balanced land use.
The Ministry of Housing, in cooperation with the World Bank, launched the National Strategy for Urban Development and Green Building in the final quarter of 2025. Discussions surrounding the strategy focused on smart cities, however, which drew attention to the need to clarify the distinction between green architecture, or green cities, and smart cities.
According to definitions by United Nations Habitat, smart cities represent a government and urban-management approach that leverages big data as a central driver for decision-making in city administration. This ranges from traffic signs management to waste-collection systems, street lighting, and public-service delivery, in order to offer facilitated services that save people time and effort.
This system relies on information and communication technologies, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence applications.
Green cities, meanwhile, are part of a global philosophy developed in response to population growth and the adverse effects of climate change on life quality and natural resources.
This philosophy focuses on providing green spaces proportional to the population, constructing buildings with optimal energy efficiency and thermal insulation, and establishing systems for recycling rainwater, sewage, and waste. Most of these systems do not require complex technology but demand environmental awareness and urban planning that respects local terrain and the city’s available resources.
The fundamental distinction lies in the fact that green cities address “environmental survival”, whereas smart cities tackle “management and efficiency.” In other words, they can be seen as the “lungs” and the “brain” of sustainable cities.
CITY GENERATIONS: Egypt’s first generation of new cities was begun in the 1970s and included 10 Ramadan, 6 October, and Sadat, established to compensate for halted urban growth during the War of Attrition with Israel, create industrial hubs that would attract investors and labour, and preserve agricultural land in the Nile Delta.
Second-generation cities, such as Sheikh Zayed and Obour, later emerged as more modern urban centres aimed at relieving congestion in Cairo and other large cities, while providing a different quality-of-life standard for middle- and upper-class residents.
In the 1990s, third-generation twin cities, including New Cairo and New Minya, were launched to address two main challenges: creating planned urban spaces as alternatives to informal growth, and generating employment opportunities to curb migration from rural to urban areas, according to the New Urban Communities Authority.
The fourth generation of cities, such as New Alamein, New Mansoura, and the New Capital, was established to create more sustainable cities by integrating green building practices with smart city management principles. The objective is to develop “competitive cities” that attract international capital and provide an innovative working environment.
There is now debate about the potential of first- to third-generation cities to become more competitive, both locally and regionally. Mohamed Khalif, a consultant in innovation and digital transformation and a member of the Communications and Information Technology Research Council at the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, said that while older cities can undergo digital transformation and become smart cities, they require more time and greater investment compared with cities designed from scratch.
Nevertheless, existing cities do have the potential to evolve into smart cities through long-term development.
Khalif added that, contrary to popular belief, smart urban development does not necessarily require starting from scratch. Modern technologies and innovations now allow many existing buildings and urban areas to be transformed into smart cities. The latest solutions, which are increasingly compatible with existing urban environments, facilitate technological transformation.
Accordingly, the primary goal of transitioning to smart cities is not simply to adopt the most advanced technologies, but rather to select solutions that are best suited to achieving the city’s objectives. Here, the key lies in choosing the type of transformation that will enable cities to meet their strategic goals while maximising benefits.
Mohamed Abu Samra, a former urban expert at Habitat Egypt, said that technology in city management is a means and not an end. Unfortunately, some urban projects have been dominated by the pursuit of technology as an end in itself, he said, regardless of whether the city actually needs it.
But this is not to belittle the capacity of technology to address many challenges, he noted.
Abu Samra described a smart city as one “that meets the needs of its residents efficiently and effectively.” There is no single prescribed mechanism for achieving this efficiency, he added.
This aligns with the contemporary concept of “15-minute cities”, in which residents can access their daily needs within a 15-minute walk between any two points in the city. This principle mirrors the planning of many older districts in Egypt, such as Heliopolis, Abdine, and Khedivial Cairo, all of which were designed to meet residents’ daily needs through a thoughtful distribution of streets and pedestrian pathways, allowing access within a 15-minute walk.
Abu Samra said that the opposite scenario has occurred in some new cities, where residents often require a car to meet their needs. Although delivery and transport apps have mitigated some of these challenges, accessing schools, hospitals, and major public transport hubs can still necessitate private vehicles.
He cited Abdine in Cairo as an example: originally designed as a smart district, it now suffers from deteriorating public infrastructure, including transportation and healthcare facilities, and these require renovation.
DEVELOPMENT: Regarding the ability of smart cities to generate employment, Abu Samra said that there are two models for job creation in city development. The Western model relies on attracting large-scale enterprises, typically managed by a single investor or a consortium, which in turn create employment in their sector.
The Chinese model, by contrast, focuses on small and micro enterprises, giving community members an opportunity to invest in small businesses. In this model, a hypermarket may be replaced by a network of small grocery stores, for example, distributed across the city to meet residents’ needs.
The advantage of the Chinese model is that it allows wealth accumulation among a larger segment of the population. In practice, the two models can be integrated when planning a city, Abu Samra noted.
Bassem Fahmi, a planning and development consultant at Egypt Habitat, warned against repeating the mistakes of the previous generations of cities. He said that construction should not begin before analysing the target population of the new city, understanding its needs, and identifying its socioeconomic profile.
Only then should the type of housing, whether for low-income residents, the middle classes, or gated communities, be determined.
He cited the well-known example of the state-managed city of Shorouk versus Madinaty, a private-sector city located nearby. Comparing the two in terms of occupancy rates, growth speed, and property value appreciation, the differences are stark, he said.
The state-managed city suffers from bureaucracy, low occupancy, and slow, minimal return on investment, while the privately managed city thrives, Fahmi said. The private city’s success is not limited to luxurious buildings and landscaping; it is also driven by incentives such as installment plans for property and services including garages, malls, and clubs, as well as schools, and most importantly efficient public transportation.
Fahmi noted that first-generation cities experienced long periods of low occupancy. However, two contrasting cases illustrate the impact of targeted economic planning. In 10 Ramadan City, directing labour-intensive industries there attracted low-income workers, giving the city a rural character.
In contrast, in 6 October City focusing on building gated communities for middle- and upper-class residents shaped the city for wealthier populations. Therefore, determining the type of economic activity and industries targeted for each new city ultimately defines its urban character, the demographic profile of its residents, and their needs, he said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: