ADP Team in Egypt Presenting ADP as an Engaging Platform on Development Issues and Discussing Egypt Vision 2030
Cairo, 19 & 20 September 2016, The Arab Development Portal (ADP) team conducted roundtable discussions in Cairo over the period 19-20 September, in collaboration with UNDP Egypt Country Office, with representatives of CAPMAS, Ministry of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ministry of Social Solidarity, General Authority for Investment, in addition to representatives from Egyptian research centers, civil society organizations and non-traditional training and consulting firms, leading entrepreneurs, academics, researchers, health and poverty experts, and representatives of international organizations, namely WHO, UN Women, and Ford Foundation.
The roundtables focused on presenting the tools and services offered by the ADP and enclosed insightful discussion on Egypt Vision 2030 and the implementation and tracking of the SDGs, with the representatives of CAPMAS, line ministries and international organizations. The focus of several interventions was on the challenges of implementing and reporting on the SDGs indicators in Egypt and the efforts made to counter them. Subsequently, poverty and health experts look into more details at poverty and health issues in Egypt within the SDGs framework, emphasizing on the high inequality levels in Egypt, in addition to, the challenges facing the availability of qualitative data on health and poverty.
Discussions with entrepreneurs focused on the main barriers faced by entrepreneurs in Egypt, highlighting the importance of data revolution and open data platforms for entrepreneurs and their data/information needs. The participants conveyed a message that if the ADP, with all the tools and features it offers, can satisfy their needs in terms of data, it will be a dream coming true!
In summary, the participants’ interventions and requests can be grouped under the following headings: the need for detailed metadata, the importance of data harmonization between the different Arab countries for comparison purposes, and the necessity to highlight areas of data gaps.