Institutional Review of the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Egypt

Executive summary

The National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD) is a unique and pivotal institution in Egypt and the MENA region with its mandate that integrates governance, sustainable development, and competitiveness, as well as its distinctive para-public structure and service provision. These attributes enable the NIGSD to support a wide range of governmental and non-governmental clients and position it as the only such institute in the region addressing these interconnected topics in a comprehensive manner. To fulfil these objectives, the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development has expanded its competences and activities to perform training, research and advisory services for a large number of academic, public and private partners in Egypt and internationally. This expansion followed a major transformation in September 2020 to better connect the Institute with Egypt’s Vision 2030 and SDG agenda. The NIGSD has become recognised as a key player in Egypt's public sector and civil society, demonstrating a strong commitment to excellence through an extended focus on good government practices and affiliations with many national and international actors. With its mandate and activities expanding, the NIGSD must address a number of challenges to embrace this transformation and support such an ambitious agenda, such as covering new policy issues and targets while maintaining quality, working with a growing number of partners, and sustaining its financial and resource model over the long term.

This Review provides a comprehensive analysis of Egypt’s NIGSD with the aim of enhancing its capacity and impact to foster better governance for sustainable development across the public administration. As an autonomous public economic organisation under the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation (MPEDIC), the NIGSD’s strategic position within the Egyptian government makes it ideally suited to build and disseminate knowledge and skills, offer guidance, and provide technical support to ministries and other public and private entities in developing effective and accountable governance for sustainable development across the public administration and society.

Key findings and suggested directions of work

The NIGSD has established a strong reputation for expertise in good governance and sustainable development, both within Egypt’s public administration and internationally. The relevance and quality of its work is widely acknowledged by partners and clients. Its ability to cover a broad spectrum of policy issues and activities stems not only from its dynamism and leadership but also from its strategic collaborations with key players from the public and private sectors and from academia in Egypt and internationally, the diversity of its expertise, and its responsiveness to the evolving needs of clients. These factors have enabled the NIGSD to continuously expand into new fields of work and develop innovative solutions to meet demands.

The Institute has progressively reinforced its strategic position and vision, including through a widely communicated mission statement. Given these developments, the mandate of the NIGSD could be further updated to more formally clarify its responsibilities to all partners, and the NIGSD could complement it with a more detailed strategic document. This could also help the NIGSD better align its resources with its expanding activities, prioritise some activities -- particularly research and analysis -- and enhance its impact on Egypt's governance and sustainable development objectives. For instance, dedicating more resources and capacities to competitiveness could help raise the profile of the NIGSD on this issue.

The NIGSD exhibits a well-defined internal operational and leadership structure, which is evolving quickly, with an independent Board of Trustees and a close relation with the MPEDIC. The Institute has been developing its research, consultancy and training capacities, which could bolster the MPEDIC’s co-ordination and monitoring efforts in good governance for sustainable development. Efforts to strengthen the partnership with the MPEDIC through formal and informal work relations should be pursued to maximise NIGSD’s relevance and value added to MPEDIC activities. Anchoring its role in cross-government co-ordination with the MPEDIC, while investing in new training and research capabilities, would further enhance its operations and impact, particularly in supporting the MPEDIC’s work and analysis for achieving Egypt Vision 2030. This must be balanced with the need for the NIGSD to maintain and strengthen its budget and institutional autonomy through non-government funded activities.

The NIGSD has established a strong network of prestigious domestic and international partners, contributing significantly to the Institute’s work and reputation as a reference on governance issues. While these partnerships vary in scope and duration, a more formalised partnership strategy could optimise their long-term impact and contribution to the NIGSD’s activities. By further targeting partnerships, guided by a strategic document with clear objectives, expectations, and rules of engagement, the NIGSD can ensure more structured contribution to its overall strategic objectives.

The NIGSD has significantly enhanced its communication capabilities, reaching out to the general public and current and potential partners and clients through traditional press releases and social media platforms. To ensure more effective and inclusive communication efforts, the Institute could develop a comprehensive and integrated communication strategy outlining clear objectives, target audiences, priorities and channels, particularly to support communications efforts to the youth population and through social media.

The NIGSD has developed and used several public governance tools focused on governance, sustainable development and competitiveness, particularly on topics such as anticorruption, SDGs, women and youth empowerment and good governance. Its approach to the development of tools has been significantly driven by specific government and partner requests. The NIGSD could continue to expand its toolkit on more focused working areas, such as strengthening civil service skills, promoting public integrity, or enhancing citizen and stakeholder participation and disseminate them widely within Egypt’s public administration.