ESCWA Publication: E/ESCWA/CL3.SEP/2025/TP.2
Country: Arab Republic of Egypt
Publication Type: Information material
Cluster: Shared Economic Prosperity
Focus Area: Financing for development, Inclusive development, Future of employment, Technology & innovation
Initiatives: Job creation, Artificial Intelligence-Powered Budgeting, Reducing inequalities, Monitoring money-metric poverty, Addressing multidimensional poverty
SDGs: Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Budgeting, Cities, Climate change mitigation, Computer software, Decent work, Discrimination, Economic growth, Educational quality, Egypt, Financial management, Gender equality, Government spending policy, Health services, Hunger, Industry, Innovations, National budgets, Poverty mitigation, Public expenditures, Renewable energy sources, Sanitation, Sustainable consumption, Sustainable development, Tax revenues, Technical cooperation
Strengthening fiscal capacity: achieving greater impacts through effective, evidence-based budgeting
June 2025
Public resources are finite and must be judiciously allocated across a spectrum of competing national priorities, often necessitating difficult trade-offs. Spending in one area may unintentionally hinder progress in another, leading to setbacks that are both costly and avoidable. Simultaneously, persistent inefficiencies—whether due to suboptimal allocation, weak execution or ineffective oversight—diminish the impacts of public spending and compromise development outcomes. Addressing these interlinked challenges demands an integrated, innovative, data-driven approach that enhances resource allocation, leverages synergetic Sustainable Development Goal multipliers, and optimizes overall efficiency across the budget cycle and public expenditure.
Despite the urgency of these issues, the Arab region continues to face a deficit of robust, evidence-based assessments that can inform policy and guide reform. This report deploys the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Integrated Budget Intelligence Toolkit (iBIT), to examine public spending dynamics in Egypt over the past two decades. Using machine learning, iBIT offers a transformative approach to public financial management. By embedding sustainability multipliers into every phase of the budget process—from planning to execution and oversight—iBIT equips policymakers with the tools to align spending with development outcomes and achieve greater impact with limited resources.
Related content
Financing for development, Inclusive development, Future of employment, Technology & innovation
Public resources are finite and must be judiciously allocated across a spectrum of competing national priorities, often necessitating difficult trade-offs. Spending in one area may unintentionally hinder progress in another, leading to setbacks that are both costly and avoidable. Simultaneously, persistent inefficiencies—whether due to suboptimal allocation, weak execution or ineffective oversight—diminish the impacts of public spending and compromise development outcomes. Addressing these interlinked challenges demands an integrated, innovative, data-driven approach that enhances resource allocation, leverages synergetic Sustainable Development Goal multipliers, and optimizes overall efficiency across the budget cycle and public expenditure.
Despite the urgency of these issues, the Arab region continues to face a deficit of robust, evidence-based assessments that can inform policy and guide reform. This report deploys the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Integrated Budget Intelligence Toolkit (iBIT), to examine public spending dynamics in Egypt over the past two decades. Using machine learning, iBIT offers a transformative approach to public financial management. By embedding sustainability multipliers into every phase of the budget process—from planning to execution and oversight—iBIT equips policymakers with the tools to align spending with development outcomes and achieve greater impact with limited resources.
