The Egyptian Government is revising the local administration system in order to deepen decentralization. The Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) has been mandated to lead the efforts to intervene with political, fiscal and administrative changes that seek to empower citizens to take hold of their futures, improve public service provision, strengthen political life, motivate democratic practices and ensure credibility of electoral programs and commitments. The Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP), on the other side, is the state authority, responsible for drawing the physical planning policy, preparation of physical development plans and programs, and their coordination with production and public services plans and programs. UN-HABITAT is currently implementing the Strategic National Development Support project (SNDSP) by drawing on the complementary and synergistic roles of its two partners (MoLD and GOPP) and its expertise and resources on decentralization and participatory budgeting, human resource development, and strategic and action planning. The over-all project goal is to contribute to effective local village/city development by supporting local stakeholders and enabling partnerships. In doing so, the project aims at:

• Building the organizational structure for fiscal and administrative decentralization as well as the capacity of local leaders in terms of leadership skills, action planning, strategic budgeting, and land management;
• Preparing strategic regional plans and budgets for selected districts and governorates, as well as enhancing revenues form land management opportunities to support the implementation of local projects;
• Implementing and following-up with monitoring and evaluation of strategic projects.

Activities:

• The project will conduct training workshops,
• Organize study tours,
• Monitor and evaluate progress in the design and implementations of strategic plans,
• Document lessons learned and best practices, and
• Hold national conferences.

Results:

• Improved institutional framework and enhanced capacities towards effective partnerships;
• Improved means of implementation by leveraging know-how and consolidating finance;
• Improved development visions and increased finance for districts and governorates;
• Support to the policy framework to accelerate local development; and
• Improved policy management through inclusive monitoring and evaluation; Project runs from 2008 to 2011.