Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on civil society organisations on Wednesday to take part in the countryside-focused ‘Decent Life’ Initiative.

El-Sisi’s remarks came during an inspection tour on the equipment, vehicles, and engineering machinery of the various state authorities participating in the presidential initiative to develop the villages of the Egyptian countryside.

The initiative aims to improve the standards of living, infrastructure, and basic services in 4,500 villages, which are home to 58 percent of Egypt’s 102-million population. 

The Decent Life initiative dates back to 2019 when the president charged the Ministry of Social Solidarity with developing Egypt’s poorest 1,000 villages. Then former minister of social solidarity Ghada Wali said the project would “target the most underprivileged sectors and individuals in the most impoverished and remote areas.”

Of the 1,000 villages, 143 across 11 governorates were chosen for the trial phase, which include an estimated 4.5 million citizens, with the development costs estimated at EGP 4 billion. The trial phase is now 96 percent complete. 

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi with Prime minister Mostafa Madbouly during his inspection tour of the equipment of the various state authorities participating in the presidential ‘Decent Life’ Initiative to develop the villages of the Egyptian countryside on Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

In December 2020, El-Sisi decided to expand the initiative to include 4,500 villages within the framework of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt’s Vision 2030. “The Egyptian countryside will be transformed in three years’ time,” El-Sisi said in January while launching the expanded initiative.

The entire national project’s budget has been increased to around EGP 600 billion.

The enormous volume of work required to develop the 4,500 villages means they have been divided into three groups of 1,500 villages each.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi with Prime minister Mostafa Madbouly during his inspection tour of the equipment of the various state authorities participating in the presidential ‘Decent Life’ Initiative to develop the villages of the Egyptian countryside on Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

The work of developing the initiative's first 1500-village group started in January 2021 with a budget of nearly EGP 200 billion and is due to be completed by the end of FY 2021-22.

El-Sisi stated that priority will be given to national industry when it comes to implementing the initiative.

In an interview with Khaled Abdel-Fattah, official spokesperson and director of the Decent Life Initiative at the Ministry of Social Solidarity, he said that all Decent Life projects now target the creation of village-based jobs, and a presidential directive to give priority to locally-produced raw materials in order to revive local economies and benefit workers in local companies and factories is being implemented.

The president also hailed state bodies, Armed Forces and civil sector for contributing to the implementation of the initiative's projects.