As prepared for delivery

Professor Mohamed Lotfi (President and Vice Chancellor, British University in Cairo)

Your excellency, Ambassador Gareth Bayley OBE (the British Ambassador to Egypt)

Dear colleagues,

• It is a privilege to be here with all of you today to mark a new milestone in the cooperation between the British University in Cairo and UNDP.
• The Memorandum of Understanding that we are about to sign will help redouble our efforts to create new and better opportunities for Egypt’s young women and men. 
• There are currently some 27 million people aged between 10 and 24 years old in Egypt.
• These young people are tomorrow’s leaders and problem solvers. 
• Providing them with quality education and access to latest innovations – and above all - engaging with them and listening to what they have to say -- will be crucial for development and for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The labour market is changing rapidly.
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution is swiftly transforming how and where work is done. 
• Millions of existing workers must be re-skilled and new workers must prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist.
• The skills gap is widening. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are changing the nature of the jobs that need to be done – and the skills needed to do them – faster than ever before.

• To bridge this skills gap, we need more sustainable and scalable solutions. 
• Partnerships are key, and partnerships with universities are instrumental in building capacities for sustainable development through research, education and engagement with youth.
• In 2021, in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, UNDP helped organize 17 social innovation and entrepreneurship camps across 27 Governorates. These camps helped young women and men across Egypt to help find innovative solutions to local development challenge and led to the establishment of over 220 tech start-ups.
• This year, we remain very much committed to continue supporting initiatives for skilling, upskilling and reskilling Egypt’s youth to ensure that they become a future ready and internationally competitive workforce. 
• Our cooperation with the British University in Cairo is based on the main principle that lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda: To leave no one behind.
• This is why we will focus on lifelong learning, community development initiatives and policy dialogue --for a more inclusive and sustainable future. Lifelong learning is crucial for enhancing social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development.
• And policy dialogue will give a further boost to important research topics such as local economic development, digital transformation, social and governance issues.
• Youth have the ability to contribute to resolving some of the biggest challenges of our time, including promoting gender equality and overcoming the impacts of pandemic diseases and climate change.
• UNDP strongly believes in the leadership of Egypt’s young women and men, and we are committed to help ensuring that they can realise their full potential and drive positive change.
• We are glad to have the British University as our partner on this journey.

Thank you.