The third edition of the Global Congress on Population, Health and Human Development (PHDC) which took place from 12-15 November under the theme “Empowering People, Advancing Progress, Enabling Opportunities”, discussed a number of key themes, notably global health issues in light of social determinants; demographic changes and human development in the age of artificial intelligence; promoting economic justice through comprehensive social protection systems; and investing in youth for sustainable development.
During the conference the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that Egypt has been officially declared free of trachoma as a public health problem. Trachoma is a bacterial infection that can cause blindness if left untreated.
This represented a new certification from the WHO regarding Egypt’s health system. The WHO had previously declared Egypt free of poliomyelitis in 2006, granting it “gold status” for completing — as the first country in the world — the pathway for eliminating hepatitis C, and confirming that Egypt was free of measles and rubella in 2024 and 2025, respectively. It also recognised that Egypt is the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean region to have achieved the WHO’s targets on the pathway to eliminating hepatitis B.
During the conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar launched the National Digital Health Strategy 2025-2029.
The strategy is a comprehensive roadmap aimed at developing the healthcare sector in Egypt through the strategic use of information and communication technologies, contributing to a more efficient, equitable and sustainable health future, Abdel-Ghaffar stated.
He added that the strategy is based on establishing an integrated, people-centred digital health system by 2030, ensuring safe and equitable access to high-quality health services by building secure, interoperable systems and standardising health data at the national level, in a way that supports decision-makers and enhances the quality of services provided to citizens.
The plan will help improve the performance and resilience of Egypt’s healthcare system by supporting data-driven decision-making, facilitating access to digital health services, and increasing the efficiency of the system, Abdel-Ghaffar said.
The PHDC ended with recommendations, structured around three pillars which aim to ensure sustainability and inclusive growth. The first focuses on integrating a developmental vision into the population agenda from a holistic perspective that includes economic and social empowerment; eliminating unmet needs and unplanned pregnancies by providing long-acting family planning methods while applying the principle of no missed opportunities; economically and socially empowering women by increasing their participation in the labour market through legislation, entrepreneurship, and community-based childcare centres.
The second pillar addresses investing in primary healthcare by transforming units into integrated centres; reducing unnecessary caesarean deliveries and maternal/newborn mortality through a natural birth strategy, strengthening governance of the private sector and mother and child-friendly centres; ensuring the sustainability of screening for non-communicable diseases, running nutrition and anti-smoking campaigns, and using artificial intelligence to allocate services in remote areas and interlink databases; achieving sustainable health financing through public-private partnerships, comprehensive insurance coverage, and taxes on tobacco and harmful substances; immediate pilot operation of the “Egypt Medical Tourism” platform, with accreditation standards and a multilingual call centre.
The third pillar stipulates promoting lifelong education and training by expanding technical education, establishing institutes, and integrating artificial intelligence skills; empowering youth and women through leadership programmes, entrepreneurship, correcting gender role imbalances, and engaging youth in policy-making; providing comprehensive social protection that includes informal workers linked to health insurance and education, and supporting their transition into formal employment; and strengthening multilateral cooperation through regional and international platforms for exchanging expertise in artificial intelligence.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 November, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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