During the World Governments Summit 2026, held in Dubai from the 3^rd until the 5^th of February, Egypt’s Haya Karima Initiative was announced as the winner of the Dubai International Best Practice Award for Sustainable Development in the Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management category.

Presented in partnership between the Dubai Municipality and the UN Habitat, the award recognises the world’s most impactful practices that have demonstrated significant contributions to sustainable urban development. With extensive prizes and support to drive forward innovation and sustainability, the award seeks to champion innovation and celebrate best-in-class initiatives that tackle pressing social, economic, and environment challenges in cities and human settlements, in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

A transformational national initiative launched in July 2021 by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Haya Karima aims to elevate quality of life for over 60 million Egyptian citizens from across the country’s poorest villages.  A pillar of Egypt’s Vision 2030, the initiative provides essential infrastructure networks (water and power supply, roads, fibre optic networks, and more) as well as community amenities (schools, medical centres, housing, and more) for over 4,500 villages across 20 governorates. To ensure that the initiative impacted those with the greatest need first, Haya Karima is organised in three phases: the first targeting villages with a poverty rate higher than 70%, then villages with poverty rates between 50% and 70% and finally, villages with rates lower than 50%.  The first phase was implemented in 1,477 villages, with approximately 27,300 service and development projects delivered, benefitting around 20 million people, across Egypt’s poorest and most vulnerable and underserved communities.  These projects have included:

• 4,000 km of new and upgraded roads, across 166 road corridors that connect cities and rural communities
• 116 railway stations
• Critical water infrastructure including 16,000+ km of water supply lines, 450+ water treatment plants, 22,000+ km of sewage networks, 170 sewage treatment plants, 5,000+ km of lined irrigation networks, and more.
• 2,300 educational facilities and 925 youth centres
• 685 health units and 365 ambulance stations
• Natural gas networks across 1,000 villages
• Rehabilitated and modernised power supply network for 1,477 villages
• Advanced communication networks and fibre optics

Beyond its immediate benefits, Haya Karima also creates job opportunities, incentivises local industries, and elevates Egypt’s most vulnerable.  

The transformational Haya Karima initiative is led by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities as well as the Engineering Authority of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, supported by numerous specialised execution, regulatory, and supporting entities as well as public and private sector companies. Accepting the award on behalf of our client and the entire project team, Dar Egypt serves as the project manager for the entire initiative, to ensure that the initiative is delivered on time, within budget, and to quality standards that meet the hopes of Egyptian communities.