Deputy Minister of Health participates in the opening "Arab-Asian Parliamentarians Forum"
Dr. Abla Al-Alfi, Deputy Minister of Health and Population, participated in the opening session of the Arab-Asian Parliamentarians Forum, chaired by Dr. Abdel Hadi Al-Qasabi, Member of the Senate, and in the presence of Dr. Ashraf Sobhi, Minister of Youth and Sports, Counselor Mahmoud Fawzi, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Legal Affairs and Political Communication, Dominic Allen, Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Population Fund, and Ioe Fumio, the Japanese Ambassador to Egypt, along with An elite group of Arab and Asian parliamentarians.
Alfi opened her speech by conveying the greetings of Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, and his wishes for the success of the forum, welcoming the attendees to “Egypt Peace, Development and Justice” She expressed her hope that the discussions would enhance parliamentary and institutional integration to support population and development policies that focus on the human being as a primary axis, paving the way to confirm that the population issue in Egypt is a development and human rights priority that intersects with the dimensions of sustainable development.
In this context, she stressed that population does not represent a burden, but rather the pillar of renaissance and productive and creative energy, provided Investing their capabilities effectively.
She explained that the National Population Council is responsible for coordinating national efforts and implementing the National Strategy for Population and Development 2030, which was launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in September 2023 and is based on improving population characteristics, empowering the family – Especially women – Through informed choice, and transforming the population message from numerical to legal, obscuring the spacing between pregnancies from 3 to 5 years to protect children’s and reproductive rights.
Based on this vision, Al-Alfi revealed the directive of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, to accelerate the achievement of goals to 2027, which led to the launch of the Urgent Population and Development Plan 2025, which targets 73 regions with low indicators. («red zones») through rapid interventions that rely on decentralization and effective institutional coordination, to accelerate field results.
She confirmed that these efforts resulted in tangible achievements: the total birth rate decreased from 2.85 in 2021 to 2.41 in 2024 (targeted for 2027), and the number of births declined to less than two million births. For the first time since 2007. Red areas also decreased from 73 to 42, and the number of governorates without them increased from 3 to 7, which reflects progress in education, health, and economic empowerment of women.
This was contributed by providing free family planning methods, training doctors, and expanding counseling services, which reduced unwanted pregnancy from 20% in 2021 to 7.5% in 2025.
It highlighted Egypt’s global distinction in linking the population issue to the rights of women and children through the “Thousand Golden Days” initiative, which protects children from pregnancy until two years of age to enhance their health and mental development. This initiative is integrated with community awareness programs led by the Council in cooperation with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the Church and the media, to spread the concepts of birth spacing and girls’ rights. In education, and combating child marriage.
Alfi concluded by stressing that the population issue is not just numbers, but rather an issue of awareness, development, and justice, and renewed the Council’s commitment to strengthening cooperation with Arab and Asian parliaments to exchange experiences and formulate policies that guarantee population justice and human investment, in order to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.
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