Under the EU-funded SwitchMed programme the Egyptian Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan (SCP-NAP) and its Annex of 28 projects was developed under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) with advisory services and technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The SCP-NAP (Executive Summary) is part of Egypt’s efforts to achieve Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The SCP-NAP (SDG12.1) addresses four priority sectors water, energy, agriculture, and municipal solid waste and was developed in Egypt through nationally owned multistakeholder processes. Within the scope of SwitchMed I, a State of Sustainable Consumption and production (SCP) Policies report was also produced.
Switch to Circular Economy:
Under SwitchMed II, a short document "How Egypt is switching to a Circular Economy" was prepared to present an overview on how the country is implementing activities/policies/programs on SCP and Circular Economy. In this document you will see 10 success stories inspired by the work of SwitchMed in the Arab Republic of Egypt. They show how what began in workshops developed into plans that created a ripple that flowed out around the country.This short publication shows that opportunities for countries from sustainable consumption and production are rich and varied. The switch to SCP and CE is off and running. SwitchMed is proud to have supported Egypt n its work to build a society where people and planet thrive and prosper together.
Eygpt has already developed an integrated development plan than has SCP at its core. For some time now, it has been building on this, expanding its waste reduction plan, establishing a circular economy, and further developing its work on sustainable water managements and energy solutions. It is clear that SCP is no longer just something discussed in meeting rooms. Now it is happening on the ground, across business and industry, in cities and regions, reducing pollution, improving the air we breathe, and promoting better use of nature’s gifts through resource-efficient and low-carbon consumption and production practices.
In-country activities:
The implementation of the plan is ongoing through selected projects and initiatives. A selection process led by the Ministry of Environment with participation of different government stakeholders and the Projects Steering Committee choose two projects from the list of 28 project proposals of the Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan: reducing plastic bag consumption and mainstreaming sustainable public procurement (SPP). CEDARE was designated by the Ministry of Environment as SwitchMed leading implementing partner for both projects.
Reduce Plastic bag: Egypt consumes around 12 billion plastic bags annually, which vastly affects humans’ health as well as animal and marine life. The Ministry of Environment, CEDARE and UNEP cooperated with 7 main supermarket chains (Metro, Carrefour, HyperOne, Ragab Sons, Kheir Zaman, Fathalla Market & Al Raya Market) to encourage Egyptians reducing their consumption of plastic bags and to shift towards more environment-friendly alternatives.
Sustainable Public Procurement: Sustainable public procurement is one of the priorities in the Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan aiming at pointing out the importance of the public sector and government in creating a push and a demand for and from local markets for green and sustainable products. By acting as a role model in creating a mechanism for purchasing sustainable goods and services, other market stakeholders can be directly and indirectly influenced to join in promoting sustainable procurement and purchasing. Several activities were developed in Egypt to allow the country to move ahead in promoting sustainable public procurement practices and foster the switch through concrete actions and tools.
Under SwitchMed II, UNEP is collaborating with Egypt on
- Waste management law;
- Single used plastic bag strategy;
- Roundtables meetings;
- Blue Economy Action plan.
