Press Release
The GIZ-Participatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP) together with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ) have successfully implemented the 2nd Egypt Urban Futures Workshop on October 28th at the French Cultural Centre in Mounira, tackling the topic of, the ‘Role of Private Sector in Informal Areas Upgrading)’.
The opening speech has been given by Mrs. Manal Shahin, Manager for Northern Governorates & Greater Cairo NGOs at the Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF), where she spoke of joining hands for combating challenge of informal settlements on the public and private side. She also mentioned that ISDF plans to stop the growth of informal settlements until 2017. Then she highlighted that encouraging CSOs to become engaged in development and in the implementation of plans, as well as the importance of the role of the private sector in Corporate Social Responsibility in informal areas upgrading.
Then the workshop was divided into three sessions: a) the role of the informal private sector in informal areas upgrading; b) the role of corporate social responsibility in the informal areas upgrading; and c) the role of formal private sector companies in informal areas upgrading. The speakers came from many prominent organisations i.e. governmental bodies, corporations, international organisations, as well as, development experts and private companies supporting developmental projects; such diversity gave the attendees different perspectives on the topic and allowed for a fruitful discussion.
The workshop series is a joint initiative by the CEDEJ, UN-HABITAT and GIZ-PDP as a continuation of the Expert Discussion Meetings on urban development that have been carried out monthly since 2008.
The PDP is an Egyptian-German development programme implemented by the Ministry of Planning (MoP) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Its aim is to enhance the living conditions for the poor urban population in Informal Areas of Greater Cairo Region.
With € 20 million from the EU and € 4 million from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), PDP works with local partners including public administration, civil society, and the private sector to upgrade altogether four informal areas in the Governorates of Cairo and Giza until 2016.
For further information, please contact Dr. Günther Wehenpohl ([email protected], www.egypt-urban.de)