Sarah El Battouty is an award-winning architect with 18 years’ experience in the field of green and environmental building. Sarah is the founder of one of Egypt’s leading environmental design and auditing companies, ECOnsult, which has carried out the most certified energy-saving projects in Egypt. Her design work spans from Egypt and Italy to China and focuses on partnering with the private sector and government to implement green projects.
In 2014 Sarah was appointed as a senior advisor to the Egyptian president focusing on sustainable community development. She has worked on several projects with the presidency that have been adopted by the government, including the introduction of energy- and water-saving awareness programs in the media and education system as well the creation of a youth leadership program to empower youth to participate in the political process. Her focus has been Egypt’s environmental policy which culminated in the successful ratification by Egypt of the Paris Climate Agreement and embarking on a nationwide program for energy-saving as well as water-scarcity awareness. Sarah represents Egypt as an official in a variety of lectures and summits focusing on climate, housing, and national security.
In addition she is co-chair of the Corporate Impact & Sustainability Committee at the American Chamber, a member of the Advisory Boards for the American University in Cairo (AUC) Architecture School and the AUC School of Business, co-author of Egypt’s Tarsheed Rating System for Green Building, and is on the Board of the Sustainability Committee of the Egyptian Stock Exchange. Her focus is to raise awareness on resource management and environmental economics to create sustainable communities for Egypt’s growing population as well as regional climate challenges. Sarah was also recognized by the government in 2018 as a national expert and leader for her service to this field for training the intelligence community and military as well as assisting in training programs for the government on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She recently founded a new start-up for recycling waste into eco-furniture called MuBun.
The Biden administration and the Middle East: Four-year policy goals
The Biden administration will face a number of major challenges in the Middle East over the next four years, from great power competition and climate change to cybersecurity and refugees and migration. But what realistically can it achieve in that time on the policy front? To better understand what’s possible, we asked 10 experts from across MEI to weigh in with their thoughts.
Egypt is not alone in having been knocked into a pit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will have to dig itself out on its own. However, if Egypt is going to do so, it needs to rethink its approach to development, starting with looking for the silver lining to the pandemic. Is it possible to address existing issues that have been brought home by the exceptional circumstances? In this report, contributors dissect the weaknesses that make Egypt particularly vulnerable to external threats and examine ways in which to address these vulnerabilities and shore up the economy and the business and developmental environment.
Sustainable development: An unavoidable path for Egypt’s future
Egypt has realized a significant number of changes in healthcare, education, and economic reform policy over the past decade. It is also increasingly looking toward policy for development that emphasizes cohesive problem solving, in line with its Vision 2030 strategy, which highlights the need for positive knock-on effects from investments in human development
