In context of cooperation between Egypt and Arab States, an official delegation from four ministries of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Health, Education, Social Affairs, and Manpower shall visit Egypt today. As many meetings to be held with Ministry of Finance’s officials to present and discuss the Egyptian experience in applying and implementing gender-responsive budget to achieve social equity.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Hany Kadry Dimian, declared that the Jordan delegation is the fourth Arab delegation visiting Egypt since the establishment of equal opportunities policies in drafting the General Budget programs; to achieve social equity. Whereas, Ministry of Finance previously received delegations from Iraq, Palestine and Bahrain.

He said that Egypt exerts great efforts to provide any experience or technical assistance for Arab and African states, especially in areas of social dimension. He asserted that Ministry of Finance is willing to help any state to adopt equal opportunities policies, related to general budget programs specifically, either assistance in establishing special departments for that purpose or in changing the method of general budget preparation to actually apply this policy.

Head of Central Department for Financial Researches and Administrative Development, Ragaa Mansour, referred that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality cooperates with Ministry of Finance in preparing Jordan delegation visit program, as the UN women representative, Jospah Bulsito, and the regional manager of Arab States office, the UN Women coordinator in Cairo, Saleh Alsheikh, will contribute in the event,

She said that Ministry of Finance prepared a field tour for the Jordan delegation, UN representatives for both Local Department Budget and State General Budget to explore the Egyptian experience features in gender-responsive budget field, including Health, Education, Social Affairs, labor force sectors, as well as E-learning system designed by Equal Opportunities Unit in Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Cabinet’s RITSEC.

Head of Minister Office Sector, Mr. Amgad Mounir, said that the delegation will also visit financial directorates in both health and education sectors in Alexandria governorate, to explore the actual implementation of the Egyptian experience, as gender-responsive budget is considered a tool to face budget deficit through treatment of wasting resources problem, and observing social gender to achieve social equity, equal allocation of spending, needs of marginalized and most needy groups. The Jordan delegation will also held a number of meetings with the Head of General Budget Sector, Mohamed Abdelfattah, Head of Local Administration Budget Sector, Ahmad Osman, a number of Finance’s officers, and teamwork members in Equal Opportunities and Administrative Development Unit.