Egypt's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, chaired a regular meeting of the ministerial group for human development on Sunday, bringing together ministers and senior officials to align policies on education, health, innovation, and social development. Abdel Ghaffar stressed that the group's mission complements rather than overlaps with individual ministerial mandates, aiming to coordinate and amplify their efforts. He highlighted the need to expand early childhood education, tackle illiteracy and delayed learning before the age of 10, and boost the use of information technology by establishing innovation centres at universities. Women's empowerment, stunting prevention, and urgent population measures were also flagged as top priorities. The meeting, held at the Ministry of Health headquarters in the New Administrative Capital, was attended by the ministers of higher education, local development, youth and sports, religious endowments, social solidarity, education, and parliamentary and legal affairs. Members of the Higher Advisory Committee for Human Development and representatives from relevant ministries also participated. Social Solidarity Minister Maya Morsy underscored the importance of unified government messaging and proposed integrating performance indicators across ministries. She pointed to initiatives such as setting up nurseries in cultural palaces, youth centres, and sports clubs to support early childhood development. Higher Education Minister Ayman Ashour reported that the "Be Prepared" initiative—launched under the slogan "One Million Innovators and Creators"—now engages more than 81,000 students and graduates through university innovation centres. He called for stronger cross-ministerial cooperation to scale up such programmes. Youth and Sports Minister Ashraf Sobhy suggested creating a "central linkage unit" to improve coordination of joint projects among ministries. Religious Endowments Minister Osama Al-Azhari announced the first phase of a digital endowments platform, incorporating artificial intelligence tools and Islamic heritage content, describing it as a cornerstone for advancing human development. Education Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif outlined reforms to the school system, including the introduction of programming and AI courses, collaboration with Japan on vocational education, and efforts to align technical education with international standards to improve employability. Local Development Minister Manal Awad said her ministry is working to boost human development indicators by creating job opportunities in governorates and improving service delivery, in coordination with the Ministry of Planning. She emphasised the need for ministries to submit comprehensive reports on their activities to the advisory committee. Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Minister Mahmoud Fawzy called for aligning policies with international human development benchmarks and recommended holding the group's meetings every three months. Higher Advisory Committee for Human Development's rapporteur Magued Osman presented proposals including a monitoring system to evaluate training programmes against labour market needs, expanding innovation centres in universities, and improving pre-university education outcomes. Abdel Ghaffar concluded that the group's second phase of work will build on last year's achievements. He added that the upcoming Global Conference on Population, Health and Human Development will serve as a platform to showcase Egypt's progress in this field.
