Egypt’s launches first national housing strategy in Arab region

Coinciding with World Habitat Day entitled: Housing for All - A Better Urban Future; the Egyptian Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, represented by the Housing and Utilities sector, and in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program, launches the first Arab National Housing Strategy for Egypt through a webinar on Monday 5 October 2020. 

 

During the webinar, the strategy will be presented, discussed, and questions received to begin implementing the strategy through the housing and utilities sector in cooperation with UN-Habitat.

 

The Housing Strategy in Egypt represents a unified and integrated vision that effectively guides the housing sector over the next twenty years and fulfills the aspirations of all Egyptians to access decent housing while recognizing that the primary role of the government is regulation and empowerment.

 

Adequate housing has been recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Article (25) states: “Every person has the right to a standard of living sufficient to maintain the health and well-being of himself and his family including nutrition and clothing, housing and medical care, as well as the necessary social services”. The Egyptian constitution that was amended in 2014 in Article 78 affirms this right.

 

Accordingly, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities prioritized addressing the issue of housing accessibility, as an important and advanced issue among the list of social and economic priorities. The Ministry has taken leading steps to define solid directions that clarify the responsibilities of the state and define policy frameworks in a way that addresses the current problems and fulfills the hopes of the Egyptian people to access adequate housing for all.

 

Hence, the Ministry, through the housing and utilities sector, launched the Egypt housing profile in 2016 in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program, which includes monitoring of the current situation and comprehensive analysis of the housing sector and aims to provide the necessary support to activate a comprehensive discussion based on a true understanding of the sector.

 

Based on the analytical results of the housing profile, the strategy was prepared over several years with the participation of various governmental, academic, research, and community groups; and per the guidelines of the global housing strategy and the recommendations of the Arab strategy for housing and urban development.

 

The strategy also comes in line with global and regional requirements, including (the sustainable development goals 2030, the New Urban Agenda, the sustainable development strategy (Egypt Vision 2030), the National Strategic Plan for Urban Development 2050). The strategy is also characterized by a great deal of flexibility related to practical implementation based on implementation experiences and changing circumstances.

 

The launch of the strategy coincides also with complex challenges as the world struggles to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and once again housing has proven to be a fundamental human right and a catalyst for many other rights.