At the 12th World Urban Forum, Egypt’s representative, Engineer Nafisa Hashem, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Housing and Supervisor of the Housing and Utilities Sector, participated in a panel discussion titled “Enhancing Comprehensive Efforts for Housing Strategies in the Arab Region.” The session, organized by the UN-Habitat at the UN Habitat Arena, brought together experts from across the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Morocco.
Rania Hedeya, Regional Director of UN-Habitat, welcomed participants and outlined the panel’s objectives, focusing on the collaborative development of housing strategies in the region. Hashem presented Egypt’s experience, including its landmark 2020 Housing Strategy, which was developed following an in-depth study on housing needs across Egypt. She outlined the four main pillars of Egypt’s strategy: urban development policies, management of existing and vacant housing stock, low-income housing policies, and sustainable housing goals.
Hashem highlighted Egypt’s flagship “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative, which has delivered approximately one million affordable housing units since its inception in 2014. Designed to support low-income families, the initiative provides affordable units with essential infrastructure and services. This comprehensive approach, which includes both direct and indirect government subsidies, aims to improve living conditions for many Egyptian families by ensuring accessible, fully-serviced housing.
Furthermore, Hashem underscored Egypt’s commitment to sustainability with the launch of smart city strategies, green building codes, and green construction initiatives under the national Building Law. However, she acknowledged ongoing challenges, including rapid population growth, land shortages in certain areas, high vacancy rates in existing units, and the preference for home ownership over renting.
She noted Egypt’s commitment to continuously refine and assess its housing policies in alignment with the upcoming 2024 national census, a key step toward realizing the goals of Egypt Vision 2030 for sustainable urban development.
The session also included a presentation by Dr. Ahmed Yousry, a housing expert from Cairo University, who assessed regional housing strategies, identifying common challenges and progress made across the Arab world in achieving housing goals.
