Region uses GIS for comprehensive, sustainable development projects
When the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global call to action to achieve a more sustainable future for all by 2030, many countries made it a commitment . Egypt, which launched its strategy in 2016, encountered the obstacle of geographic disparity due to the development needs in the upper region of the country. To meet this challenge, the Egyptian Ministry for Local Development and the World Bank launched the Upper Egyptian Local Development Program (UELDP) a year later.
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“As an Esri partner, ProSyLab contributes to its successes [by] participating in this national project”
An important step towards improving development in Upper Egypt – and part of UELDP – is building a GIS infrastructure in the region. To achieve this, UELDP selected the world’s leading provider of location intelligence, Esri , to provide the region’s new GIS unit with all of the hardware, software, data and applications required to manage complex geospatial data.
“This is a strategically important project that will play a critical role in promoting sustainable, high-impact urban planning and development to support communities in Upper Egypt,” said Dr. Mohamed Misbah, Middle East and Africa Director at Khatib & Alami (K&A), a platinum partner of Esri.
The project will use a unified geodatabase and map viewer to examine geostatistical information and produce reports, graphs and thematic maps. It will also deploy mobile data collection applications that allow government personnel to access data from the field. These services offer policy makers a holistic view in addition to operational dashboards.
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Esri’s ArcGIS software forms the basis for asset management systems at government level (jurisdictional) and helps integrate them with databases in relevant ministries and central government agencies. This enables these organizations to fully display a wealth of statistical and spatial information to aid long-term planning and execution in line with the vision and future goals of UELDP.
To further strengthen the capacities of the governorates, GIS will enable georeferencing of local development data to support decision-making. The implementation of this system was awarded to the Esri partners ProSyLab and K&A.
“As an Esri partner, ProSyLab is contributing to its successes [by] participating in this national project,” said Mahmoud Moursi, President of ProSyLab. “The project aims to support the public sector, represented by the UELDP, in setting up a GIS infrastructure that promotes the concept of data exchange, facilitates the decision-making process and builds capacities.”
UELDP aims to localize sustainable development, create new employment opportunities, improve the economy and strengthen state capacities for high quality infrastructure and the provision of services in selected governorates in Upper Egypt. It was piloted in Qena and Sohag Governors to fill existing development gaps and was successful, leading to national political reforms and even inspiring an expanded version of the program for Egypt’s Decent Life 2019 initiative.
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