CAIRO – Egyptian Local Development Minister Hisham Amna said that the government attached great importance to investment in human capital in order to achieve sustainable development.
This came during his meeting with Director of the Hague Academy for Local Governance Cecile Meijs, Shahinda el Naggar, who is responsible for implementing the training programs at the academy, as well as a number of the academy’s officials.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the minister’s visit to Netherlands, in presence of Egypt’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Hatem Abdel Qader, MENA reported.
The minister said that the Hague Academy is one of the leading academies in promoting comprehensive and participatory local governance.
The Egyptian government considers the academy as a key partner in promoting the effective involvement of local communities through training and raising the efficiency of workers at the local level in achieving sustainable development goals, the minister added.
Integrated training plans target more than 7,000 leaders and workers at local administration levels, the minister further noted.
The SAQQARA Training Center in Egypt provides an institutional framework that combines academic study and the exchange of applied experiences, the minister said.
The Hague Academy For Local Governance was established in 2006 by VNG International – the agency for cooperation of The Netherlands Association of Local Governments – with the support of the municipality of The Hague and the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Coming from the world of local government, being part of a worldwide network of local government practitioners, The Hague Academy offers training programs that focus on real life situations and challenges that the participants recognize from their daily work.
They meet colleagues from abroad, learn from experiences in other countries and relate what has been learned to the practice in their home countries.
