Continuing her participation in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos, Minister of International Cooperation H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat participated in two-panel discussions on encouraging investment in the SDGs titled “Promoting Investment for Sustainable Development Goals: Repurposing Capital” and another session on the current global situation and challenges facing development efforts.
The first session “Promoting Investment for Sustainable Development Goals: Repurposing Capital” the Minister participated in was the discussion session organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with the participation of UNCTAD Secretary General Rebecca Greenspan Mayovis; Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness and Foreign French Nationals Abroad Olivier Becht; and the opening speech was delivered by President of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate H.E. Jose Ramos-Horta.
The session discussed current economic conditions and the role of stakeholders in stimulating private sector participation and investment in developing countries, the role of relevant parties and the UNCTAD in supporting developing countries to enhance their participation in the global economy, and the use of trade, investment, finance and technology as tools for inclusive and sustainable development.
In her speech, Al-Mashat stressed the necessity for the international community, through multilateral cooperation, to work to stimulate green investments and enhance development efforts simultaneously, in order to maintain development gains and address current challenges, through effective engagement of all relevant parties.
The Minister pointed out that Egypt is moving forward in implementing development efforts and, in light of its COP27 presidency, strengthening the actions taken to promote the green transition. H.E. noted that in order to share experiences and promote climate finance in emerging economies and developing countries, the Ministry of International Cooperation in collaboration with over 100 partners issued the “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing”, which stimulates climate finance through the role of each of the relevant parties, highlights successful financing models in developing countries and promotes green transition efforts to benefit from and replicate in other countries.
She added that joint work with relevant stakeholders would be strengthened throughout the year to implement these recommendations and stimulate international efforts to close the climate finance gap. Moreover, the Minister referred to Egypt’s launch of the Country Platform for the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy NWFE Program as an implementation model of the guidebook’s principles mobilizing climate finance through national platforms taking into account priorities at the level of mitigation and adaptation efforts.
H.E. also stressed that the funding gap for the SDGs had increased significantly due to the successive challenges and crises the world is going through, and this requires consolidating multilateral cooperation efforts so that the world can achieve the global goals by 2030.
During the session, the French minister reviewed his country’s role in supporting developing countries, stressing that the current challenges are global challenges that require everyone’s solidarity to get out of the crisis.
In another context, Al-Mashat participated in the Agility Tanden Talk on the current state of the global economy and how to move forward in stimulating investments to build sustainable economies, alongside Stephen Gerard Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital, an international private sector firm.
In her speech, the Minister said that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown many vulnerabilities in the global economy and reinforced the need for adaptability and resilience in order to face future shocks and risks. These challenges are also coupled with the war in Europe that has led to rising energy prices, a threat to food security, disruptions in supply chains and rising inflation rates.
Al-Mashat pointed out that all these challenges are likely to undermine development efforts and the gains that have been made over the past years, putting millions of citizens around the world at risk of poverty, and will increase debt burdens on many developing and emerging countries, according to estimates of international organizations.
She explained that the climate change crisis also casts a shadow at a time when the world is witnessing a gap in climate financing, and the funds required to implement the NDCs by 2030 amount to about $5.9 trillion.
She drew attention to the G20’s emphasis on the importance of joint action and unified efforts to provide funds and resources in order to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development, resilience and the ability to face shocks, in addition to the importance of national platforms based on transparency, inclusiveness and institutionalization, as well as facilitating dialogue between the various relevant parties and enabling countries to meet development requirements and priorities, and mobilize various financing mechanisms and resources.
The Minister said that Egypt launched the NWFE program as an integrated approach based on the interlinkages between the water, food and energy sectors, and its projects are derived from the National Strategy for Climate Change (NCCS) 2050. This is done in order to stimulate green transformation and implement NDCs and to achieve economic growth. The platform includes all relevant stakeholders, whether multilateral and bilateral development partners, development banks, international institutions, philanthropic organizations and the private sector, to create efforts that are consistent with national priorities and to integrate to achieve comprehensive and sustainable growth and stimulate private sector investment.
She added that the NWFE program aims to mobilize investments worth $14.7 billion, with $10 billion for energy sector projects to implement plants generating 10 GW of renewable energy, and $1.35 billion directed to water sector projects, in addition to $3.35 billion for food security projects, so as to stimulate adaptation efforts and mitigate the consequences of climate change.
The NWFE program came to become a different model for the G20 initiative under the name of JETPs, which was launched to support countries that depend on coal for energy generation in order to reduce their contribution to pollution and global warming. Meanwhile, NWFE is a mechanism that can be replicated and applied in all developing and emerging economies to stimulate their ability to implement climate ambitions.
The WEF 2023 Annual Meetings in Davos, Switzerland is being held under the theme “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”, with the participation of several heads of state, heads of government, ministers, and major private sector companies. The Minister is scheduled to hold a number of bilateral meetings between the 16th and 20th with representatives of multilateral and bilateral development partners, private sector companies, and philanthropic organizations, and will also be participating in several events and sessions in light of the strengthening economic relations between Egypt and regional and international institutions.
