Gains of the Arab Development Week in a special interview with Ambassador Nada Al-Agizi

The gains of the Arab Development Week in a special interview with Ambassador Nada Al-Agezi

The Arab region has a position that requires us to stimulate all efforts, to activate sustainable development paths. So that this benefits the growth of their economies and the stability of their people, which crystallizes the role of a vital platform in the field of promoting comprehensive sustainability, which is the Arab Sustainable Development Week.

Hence,For the Earth GuardsThis dialogue with Ambassador/Nada Al-Agizi - Minister Plenipotentiary and Director of the Department of Sustainable Development and International Cooperation at the League of Arab States - was the person most capable of opening the files of Arab development, and exploring its challenges by highlighting the most prominent things presented by the Arab Development Week in its fifth edition...so here are the lines of the dialogue.

With the title “Sustainable Solutions for a Better Future... Flexibility and Adaptation in a Developing Arab World,” the activities of the fifth edition of the Arab Sustainable Development Week were launched - under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, which is considered a transformative event to pave the way to an Arab future characterized by stability and sustainability. Tell us about this week’s activities and their importance.

The Arab Week for Sustainable Development is the largest dialogue platform in the Arab region in terms of momentum, and in terms of the interaction of participants and strategic partners. Which makes it a diverse Arab week, and at the same time it covers everything related to sustainable development at the international level, the Arab regional level, and even at the local level, and this reflects - directly and indirectly - the concept of the clean state and its activities related to sustainable development, and by clean state here we mean the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The activities of the Arab Sustainable Development Week witnessed significant participation from stakeholders, governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, academia, and active youth in development fields. What are the most important recommendations and practical solutions proposed by these participants?

In this edition of the Arab Development Week, we had more than 50 sessions, with more than 150 speakers in various fields through the main themes of the week. There were sessions that addressed climate change topics, technology topics, and topics related to sustainable finance, and we also held a forum on investment development and sustainability. Many recommendations have emerged from these topics, which are presented to the Economic and Social Council.

We have issued a report covering all the outputs of this week, and as for the most important outputs, we are working to integrate them into the framework of the Arab Committee to follow up on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That is, the official committee of participating countries and other parties concerned with the issue of sustainable development.

Some of these outputs are related to the “forum for sustainable and investment”, which resulted in a declaration of dialogue between governments and international and regional institutions. In order to reduce the risks surrounding investment in the Arab region, especially in light of global challenges, such as climate change and water poverty, we are trying to work to attract investment in light of these challenges.

This dialogue resulted in the establishment of a founding committee that will, in the future, establish a trust fund to guarantee investments coming to the Arab region. Our partners in this fund include the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Arab Economic Development Fund, in cooperation with other international and regional financial institutions.

Among the important matters is what we held on the sidelines of the week, which is the Third Arab Youth Summit. This summit had multiple recommendations and outcomes through many sessions, including sessions on technology and artificial intelligence. We also presented - in addition to the above - a number of new initiatives, such as the electronic litigation initiative that Egypt launched through the Ministry of Justice, explaining to all Arab countries how to address such issues in the Egyptian climate.

All of this was among our goals in the fifth edition of the Arab Development Week, in addition to the lessons learned and success stories, in light of the presence of Arab countries, decision-makers, and a large number of private sector companies.

In your opinion, to what extent do you find that the brutal wars that Israel is waging in the region detract from people’s opportunities for development and achieving sustainability?

There is no doubt that the conflicts in the Arab region - such as the Israeli occupation of Palestine - undermine the development opportunities of any country. Unfortunately, our Arab region has become stigmatized by the idea of ​​conflicts. This prompted us to address the topic more extensively. We presented the idea of ​​how to achieve sustainable development in countries suffering from conflicts, which are many countries, including approximately 9 countries in the Arab region, with the exception of Palestine. Because it has a special status, it is under occupation.

All of these countries suffer from conflicts directly, such as wars, or indirectly through the phenomenon of refugees who burden the countries; So we established a committee on sustainable development, called “Multi stakeholder committee for countries attacked by conflicts.”

This committee cooperates with the League of Arab States andthe United Nations, and with partner bodies within the country itself, and this by taking into consideration the citizens who suffer severely from such conflicts. To achieve this goal, we have established partnerships with civil society actors working on the ground, such as the regional food bank network; It is a network that covers about 59 countries around the world, including Arab countries, until we reach the affected local areas and the most needy and poorest people.

Over the past years, Egypt has been keen to host the Arab Week for Sustainable Development, and this is in fruitful cooperation and an extended development partnership with the League of Arab States and a number of international development partners. Tell us about the importance of the role of partnerships in achieving sustainability.

Goal (17) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - establishing partnerships to achieve the goals - is the main focus of our work related to sustainable development management and international cooperation. That is, we work within a framework through cooperation with all those concerned with this file - governments, civil society, the private sector, parliamentarians, youth, people with disabilities, and all sectors of society - because it is extremely difficult to achieve sustainable development in any country or in any region without partnerships.

Hence, our strategic partnerships with the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union, as well as our partnerships with Asian and South American countries, as well as our partnerships with youth, were what prompted us to establish the Arab Youth Platform for Sustainable Development, as well as our partnerships with civil society organizations, where we established the Network of Sustainable Development Forums, which so far covers about seven Arab countries.

There is also a new partnership, the Arab League Partners for Sustainability Alliance, which is not an official alliance, but rather a group of private sector companies with civil society and various other parties. To cooperate sustainably on various topics of interest to the private sector and the League of Arab States. In this coalition, we established a number of different committees, such as the Civil Society Committee, the Technology Committee, and the Digital Transformation Committee. Each of these committees is headed by a company or entity, and includes other companies interested in the file targeted by the committee.

The question here is: What do we offer to the partners of this alliance, and what do they offer us? We provide them with the opportunity as companies in the private sector, as we work to bridge the distance between them and the Arab countries through joint meetings. This is because we have 13 ministerial councils specialized in all fields - within the framework of the League of Arab States - in the environment, education, health, youth, women, and other fields, all of which are governmental fields. Therefore, when a company comes from the private sector concerned with a file such as the cement file, our role is to create a link between it and those concerned with this file in the Arab countries, where we can open a window for dialogue between these parties in an organized manner.

As for these parties, they help us with expertise in holding conferences and events, and this contributes to expanding the scope of our work among Arab countries, and all of this is a mutual interest.

The new alliance is also among the main partners in the Arab Sustainability Exhibition, which will be held in May 2025, and will play a major role in the future. Because he has extensive contact with the private sector; Which gives us an opportunity to help decision-makers in Arab countries communicate with the private sector, which finds this an opportunity to expand its activity with governments.

Elena Panova, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Arab Republic of Egypt, valued the partnership between the Arab League and the United Nations, which supports sustainable development efforts in Egypt and the Arab region. What are the most important provisions of this partnership, and what is the action plan to achieve sustainability?

Our partnership with the United Nations is a historic strategic partnership, and is based on multiple levels, such as the secretariat level of His Excellency the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, which is the level for which a meeting is held every two years. There is also cooperation at the level of specialized Arab organizations and United Nations agencies, and this has an annual meeting held once in Geneva and once in the country of headquarters.

And also at the level of the various departments in the League of Arab States, such as women with women, agriculture with agriculture, and environment with the environment. Since sustainable development is naturally intertwined with all these topics, our partnerships as a department are diverse and different.

Therefore, we entered into an important partnership with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which is located in Lebanon, a committee that covers all Arab countries. We cooperate together to address more than one topic, and one of the most prominent results of this cooperation is: the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development, which addresses the most prominent topics of the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development; It is the forum to which countries of the world submit Voluntary National Reviews for Sustainable Development, and it is held every year in July in New York City.

Based on the above, our partnership with ESCWA is that we help the Arab countries write this report, and this is through workshops - the number of which has reached 13 - so that each Arab country presents a picture of its efforts and the extent of its progress in achieving the goals of sustainable development, in cooperation with the League of Arab States and the agendas of the United Nations, and then this forum helps us to export messages related to the Arab region to the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF).

Every year, an Arab country chairs the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development, and its minister is the body entrusted with presenting these messages. Therefore, this partnership with the United Nations is very important in the field of sustainable development, whether at the level of training Arab countries and building their capacities, or the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development, which submits its development reports to the High-Level Political Forum.

In your opinion, what are the three most important gains of the Arab Development Week, and what are the next steps to advance sustainable development in the Arab world?

One of the most important gains:The open dialogue that we practice every year in this field, which helps us form very important partnerships at all levels; Because there is no doubt that integration between different levels is important, as we integrate governments, the private sector, civil society, youth, parliamentarians, and scientific institutions.

All of this provides us with a very important dialogue; Therefore, the Arab Development Week is considered the major platform, and its outcomes are a proposed program for the week in the following year, and so on in an ongoing manner, and every year we have new topics to present, and we also have new partners and new initiatives.

The second gain: is that we are exploring the challenges, especially since the challenges of the Arab region are similar, as we can dialogue with governments and international and regional organizations; So that they can hear what is happening in the Arab region, so we can present how to help, review what we need, and what are the new issues, and so that we can understand the dimensions of the conflicts for which the “Multilateral Committee for Conflict-Prone States” meets; In order to evaluate the current situation and identify our problems.

As for the third gain: it is that Egypt is participating at the highest levels; Through the Ministry of Planning concerned with the sustainable development file, Egypt and its efforts stand out in terms of being a clean country. Given that it has more powers - as the host country - most of its ministers participate in this event, and this helps them present their initiatives in various fields. Consequently, the Arab countries listen to Egypt, and there is an exchange of experiences and a broader exchange of networks.

These gains make this week an opportunity to benefit in very many ways, and although this field still has a lot of progress to do, and is in need of more comprehensive media coverage; There are benefits represented in raising awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From year to year, there are individuals who benefit from a new, positive idea, and learn more and more, and I see that the week’s reactions are increasing day by day, and reaching a larger segment.

In conclusion, this was a tour of a regional platform that highlights Egypt’s role in the Arab region as a pioneer of sustainable development in various fields, as the Arab Development Week had regional and international results; Therefore, the Earth Guards thank Ambassador Nada Al-Agizy, and wish Egypt a more sustainable future.