Regional Development Center – Overview

The Regional Development Center is one of the core scientific centers of the Institute of National Planning. It focuses on developing planning and monitoring methodologies at the regional and local levels in line with international best practices and global developments. The Center aims to support and enhance planning and monitoring activities at the macro and sectoral levels, as well as across all governmental and non-governmental institutions in the country.

The Center adopts a set of specialized activities that support the vision, mission, and objectives of the Institute’s strategic plan. It also applies multiple indicators to measure and evaluate the performance of the Center and its supporting academic staff, while extracting lessons learned from the Institute’s experience in strategic planning.

Within this framework, the Regional Development Center operates through its four departments: Regional Planning, Manpower and Population, Local Administration and Decentralization, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These departments conduct research and studies related to regional and local development and the methods of preparing and monitoring their development plans. The objective is to identify appropriate policies and strategies for development at both regional and local levels, contributing to the achievement of the national development plan and the localization of development efforts at the governorate level.

The Center is also responsible for preparing studies that contribute to planning and developing resources, employing geographic information systems in the development process, conducting studies on governance of local administration systems and decentralization issues, as well as studies related to population and manpower.

In light of these activities and within the context of the Institute’s new strategic plan, the Regional Development Center prepares its annual work program based on the following key principles:

• Translating and adopting the Institute’s vision, mission, and values in the Center’s activities.
• Formulating strategic objectives for the Center in alignment with the Institute’s overall strategic goals.
• Adopting practical and implementation-oriented programs that support the Institute’s work programs.
• Enhancing cooperation and integration with all other scientific centers to achieve the Institute’s strategic objectives.
• Strengthening cooperation and coordination with the Center’s partners at the national and international levels.
• Highlighting the uniqueness and distinction of the Center’s specialized activities within the Institute’s areas of work.
• Ensuring broader participation of academic staff and supporting academic staff in shaping and achieving the objectives of the Center and the Institute.

The Center also seeks to strengthen the Institute’s vital role in supporting the sustainable development process in Egypt, exerting the necessary efforts through its distinguished activities, expertise, and constructive participation.

Fields of Work

The Center’s fields of work focus on:

• Conducting research and studies related to comprehensive regional development and methods of preparing and monitoring development plans.
• Identifying appropriate policies and strategies for regional development.
• Preparing regional accounts and planning studies that contribute to resource planning, development, and project localization.
• Utilizing geographic and planning information systems.
• Preparing studies on the development of local administration bodies and decentralization issues.
• Conducting studies related to population and manpower issues and their impact on economic and social development, as well as the impact of development on them.

Strategic Objectives

The strategic objectives of the Center are derived from the Institute’s strategic objectives and aim to achieve them by supporting the Institute’s core activities—research, training, education, consultancy, and social responsibility—on one hand, and by enhancing administrative systems and operational efficiency on the other. The Center’s strategic objectives include:

1. Conducting scientific research and studies in fields related to regional development.
2. Preparing planning studies to identify growth potentials, constraints, and measure regional disparities.
3. Conducting studies related to regional accounts, decentralization, and local administration issues.
4. Conducting studies related to corporate social responsibility and local development issues.
5. Providing technical support to entities responsible for preparing comprehensive regional development plans by offering studies and research on regional development and formulating policies, strategies, and planning standards in all relevant fields, including population, manpower, housing, infrastructure, public services, and transportation.
6. Capacity building and qualification of human resources in the fields of regional planning and development through organizing specialized training programs in coordination with local, regional, and international institutions.
7. Organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, and specialized scientific meetings.
8. Providing opinions on draft laws and decisions related to planning and development issues.
9. Offering scientific consultancy services to entities working in the field of regional and local planning and development.