Cairo University, in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, launches the first phase of the “Sustainable Universities” initiative in light of the principle of the right to development issued by the United Nations General Assembly in 1986, which is the declaration that enshrines development as a human right and stresses the importance of the active participation of all citizens in achieving development and enjoying its fruits without discrimination.

The initiative aims to activate the university’s role in community development at the local and national levels, raise awareness among students about sustainable development issues and encourage them to carry out activities aimed at serving the goals of sustainable development. An initial meeting was held under the auspices of Dr. Muhammad El-Khosht to discuss aspects of implementing the initiative and making it successful at the university. In the presence of Dr. Mohamed Sami Abdel Sadiq, Vice President of Cairo University for Community Service and Environmental Development Affairs. 

Dr. Mohamed Elkhosht, President of Cairo University, said that Cairo University’s strategy in transforming into a fourth-generation university focuses on the environmental dimension, encouraging scientific research in the field of sustainability and environmental preservation, and reducing the effects of climate change in order to consolidate the university’s role in many development axes, and integrate the university’s educational and research plan, in line with Egypt’s Strategic Vision 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, stressing Cairo University’s leadership in the field of sustainability and becoming an environmentally friendly university.

The “Sustainable Universities” initiative aims to raise awareness of the issues of the right to development and sustainable development within the university, enable students to implement self-activities, and build students’ capabilities directly through training and qualification programs or indirectly through the work of students who have previously been trained by the Ministry by training other students within the university, benefiting from young people’s ideas and suggestions, and opening a bridge of communication with them to invest in their creative energy.

The work axes of the “Sustainable Universities” initiative also include enhancing the concept of social inclusion by integrating all groups, whether women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly, into the initiative’s activities, greening the various state projects and moving to green thought, and deepening the role of the citizen in making and implementing the state’s public policies. The main evaluation criteria are based on generalizing the benefits of activities to the largest number of beneficiaries, achieving a development impact linked to Egypt’s Vision 2030, expanding the pattern of participation in designing and implementing activities, and working on the centrality of the citizen’s role in making and implementing the state’s public policies. The initiative also aims in the coming years to expand to include all Egyptian public, private and private universities.

Dr. Muhammad Sami Abdel Sadiq, Vice President of the University for Community Service and Environmental Development, said that the “Sustainable Universities” initiative is based on two main axes. The first axis relates to community service, through which students participating in the initiative implement activities and events aimed at serving the community, such as eliminating illiteracy and launching convoys. And organizing scientific and cultural camps and forums in the presence of experts and specialists to present new creative ideas. The second axis relates to scientific research, through which students are enabled to conduct scientific research in the field of sustainable development, especially with regard to youth issues and how to integrate them into the state’s general policies related to sustainable development.

It is worth noting that Cairo University has established a sustainability office, the first of its kind in Egyptian public universities, to enhance institutional sustainability and work to prepare cadres capable of finding environmentally sound, socially just, and economically feasible solutions, so that Cairo University will become a world-leading institution in promoting environmental sustainability.