Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Ahmed Rostom met Sabina Alkire, director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, on the sidelines of the 2026 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at United Nations headquarters in New York.
The two officials discussed expanding cooperation on multidimensional poverty indicators and adopting the latest international methodologies. Rostom highlighted Egypt’s partnership with the initiative and the government’s focus on the Decent Life Initiative to improve living standards in rural areas.
Alkire praised Egypt’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index and the work of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics. She also noted upcoming updates to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index that will include subnational indicators for Egypt.
Both sides agreed to continue cooperation through capacity-building programmes and the exchange of best practices to support evidence-based policies targeting vulnerable groups.