This widespread belief in the role of women did not come out of nowhere, nor was it merely a theoretical expression of the usual role of Egyptian women. Rather, it was accompanied by prominent practical steps that translated it into reality, including making room on a wide scale for women in various sectors, including “difficult” ministerial portfolios, including economic portfolios that were, until not long ago, the exclusive domain of men.
During President Sisi’s era, many women have emerged with remarkable roles and imprints in the economic field, led by the Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, who enjoys broad confidence from the Egyptian state. This confidence was renewed through the new ministerial reshuffle that kept her in her position, after merging her ministry with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.
Al-Mashat’s name has been prominent over the past years, even before she assumed the Ministry of Tourism portfolio, then the Ministry of International Cooperation portfolio, and when she held the position of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank for Monetary Policy at the Central Bank of Egypt.
Since 2019 until now, through her ministerial position, she has been able to strengthen the frameworks of partnership between Egypt and development partners in various regional and international institutions, and reach various agreements and arrangements that constituted essential additions to the Egyptian economy, during a period in which the economy suffered from extensive pressures, in addition to her ministry’s various initiatives to strengthen frameworks of cooperation and mobilize soft financing for Egypt.
Al-Mashat’s performance at the Ministry of International Cooperation is seen as “unique and exceptional,” as she imposed special, different, and unconventional policies, armed with her long and extensive experience in the economic institutions she worked in, both local and international, and her interest in institutional and administrative reform in Egypt and emerging countries.
Economic background
Rania Abdel Moneim Al-Mashat (born 1975) has a distinguished academic economic background, focusing on applications of macroeconomics, international economics, and monetary policy. She holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo in 1995, a MA from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1998, and a PhD in Economics from the same university.
Al-Mashat has over 20 years of international experience in financial institutions, central banks, financial systems, monetary policy regimes, sustainable development, international cooperation policies and strategies, and climate finance.
Al-Mashat served as Deputy Director and Head of the Monetary Policy Department at the Central Bank of Egypt. She previously served as Minister of Tourism (the first female minister in this position) from January 2018 to December 2019.
Through her position at the Central Bank, Al-Mashat (who served as Senior Economist Advisor to the International Monetary Fund in Washington 2016-2018, and as a Senior Economist at the Fund 2001-2005) played a distinguished role in modernizing the country’s monetary policies through the responsibilities assigned to her in the context of analyzing and evaluating monetary policy, which constituted extensive contributions to the country’s banking reform program.
She contributed to developing and updating the Central Bank’s monetary policy strategy, and the shift towards targeting inflation, as one of the axes of the banking reform program launched in 2004. She also participated in setting and managing the country’s macroeconomic policies in cooperation with the relevant ministries and economic bodies, and coordinated relations between the Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and credit rating and evaluation institutions.
Monetary policy
Through her responsibilities at the Central Bank and her various tasks thereafter, she represented Egypt in many regional and international forums, and led technical discussions on the part of the Bank during the IMF missions. She was also part of the negotiating team for the financial and economic reform program between 2011 and 2013, in addition to exchanging practical experiences with international economic institutions and central banks, where she was responsible for coordinating relations between the Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and international credit rating and evaluation institutions. This is a role that she continued with other tasks and objectives through her position as Minister of International Cooperation, by strengthening channels of communication and cooperation with regional and international institutions.
The Egyptian Minister’s CV includes many prominent stations in work in local, regional and international institutions. Among the institutions in which she was a member, she was an executive board member in the Egyptian Stock Exchange and the Arab Investment Bank. She also served as a member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, in addition to being a professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, and holds the rank of Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum for Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey. She holds the position of Alternate Governor for Egypt at the African Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the New Development Bank.
Al-Mashat is a founder and member of several advisory boards, alliances and international institutions of the World Economic Forum, where she co-founded the Resilience Coalition, is the co-chair of the Global South Investment Mobilization Network for Clean Energy, co-chair of the Stewardship Board for the Middle East and North Africa, a board member of the Center for the New Economy and Society, a member of Mission Possible for Climate Action, and a member of the Earth Action Initiative. She has also served as a member of a number of think tanks and research centers.
She also served as Deputy Project Director at the Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS) at the University of Maryland – College Park in the United States. She has many studies and research papers, and has participated in international conferences on monetary policies and macroeconomics.
Egyptian leadership confidence
Al-Mashat has gained the wide trust of the political administration in Egypt, and her first appearance in the position of “minister” was in 2018 as Minister of Tourism. During the short period she spent in that position, she was able to achieve many accomplishments, including tourism revenues representing 18 percent of the GDP in the year in which she assumed the ministry, compared to only 10 percent previously.
In December 2019, she was appointed Minister of International Cooperation, a position in which she harnessed all her potential, drawing on her accumulated experience in dealing with international financial institutions, to achieve many accomplishments in the context of the basic tasks in the context of partnership and advancing bilateral and multilateral cooperation with development partners.
Al-Mashat has contributed with its extensive activity to developing and strengthening Egypt’s economic cooperation relations with countries and international and regional organizations, including setting standards and controls for external borrowing and obtaining foreign grants, following up on local borrowing entities in terms of use and repayment, as well as entities benefiting from grants, managing the country’s relations with organizations, bodies and institutions of economic cooperation and international and regional financing, ensuring continuity and specialized agencies of the United Nations in the field of economic cooperation, within the framework of the state’s general policy and in a manner that ensures achieving economic development.
The Ministry has launched several initiatives, including the “Novi” platform, the national platform for green projects, as a national program that represents an effective regional model and a concessional financing approach to address adaptation, mitigation and resilience issues. Egypt has developed a comprehensive national climate change strategy that includes key objectives until 2050, and a set of priority projects (26 projects) until 2030, covering the three main pillars of climate action: mitigation, adaptation and resilience, with a focus on a just transition to a green economy.
Awards and Honors
Throughout her career, Al-Mashat has received numerous awards and honors:
- In 2022, she received the “Most Outstanding Minister of International Cooperation in Africa” award, presented by the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs – Institute for African Studies in partnership with the GE7 Initiative.
- In 2019, it received the “International Leadership in Tourism” award from the World Travel and Tourism Council.
- Received the “International Leadership Award for Effective Contribution to the Global Tourism Industry” for the year 2019 from the London International Travel Exchange.
- It won the United Nations Destination Promotion Award in 2019, as well as the Best Destination Promotional Video Award, and the 2019 Tourism Leadership Award from the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism.
- In 2015, she was selected as one of the 50 most influential women in the Egyptian economy, and was also among the 100 most prominent young leaders in Africa during 2014 and 2015, according to the French Choiseul Institute.
- She was selected as one of the Young International Leaders in the World Economic Forum list during the World Economic Forum “Davos” activities in 2014.
- In the same year, she was ranked among the 10 most influential women in the Egyptian banking sector, according to a poll conducted by Basira Center for Public Opinion Research.
- She holds a Certificate in Creative Leadership in Economic Transformation from Oxford University in the United Kingdom; as well as a Certificate in Public Policy and Creative Leadership from Harvard University in the United States of America.
Excellent choice
For his part, the director of the Egypt Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, Mustafa Abu Zeid, said in exclusive statements to the “Sky News Arabia Economy” website that Dr. Rania Al-Mashat’s assumption of the planning portfolio, in addition to international cooperation, according to the recent ministerial amendment, is a “successful choice” due to Al-Mashat’s experience with development partners and the soft financing she has been able to obtain over the past years.
He added: “I have had many closed sessions with Dr. Rania Al-Mashat on the economic axis of the national dialogue as one of the economic experts and one of the contributors to the document of strategic directions for the Egyptian economy during the next six years. I find her fully aware of all the files related to the ministry, the types of funding, the direction of that funding, and the percentage of private sector participation in that funding.”
He added: “Therefore, I believe that it will provide a lot in terms of upgrading economic planning policies in setting unified policies with specific objectives to achieve the requirements of the next stage, in terms of increasing the contribution of the industrial, agricultural and information technology sectors according to the second stage of structural reforms.”
Integrating international cooperation and investment
Regarding the merger of the two ministries, he says that in light of the current economic changes, the political leadership has deemed it necessary to merge the Ministries of Planning and Economic Development with International Cooperation, adding: I believe that this merger will have many benefits, as there will be a unified policy regarding consistency with what government investments require in terms of low-cost soft financing or grants from development companies in establishing national projects, especially with regard to the Decent Life Project, infrastructure projects, or industrial and productive projects in general.
Thus, merging these two ministries will provide the necessary funding to complete these projects, as the Ministry of Planning is responsible for Chapter Six of the state’s general budget related to financial investments, which are spent on Egyptian government projects. On the other hand, the Ministry of Planning is responsible for the calculations of the gross domestic product, and thus estimating the economic growth rate.
Accordingly, international cooperation with planning will make the picture clearer and more accurate regarding the investment funding needed by the Egyptian government to increase the size of the gross domestic product, and thus achieve the targeted economic growth rate through which direct and indirect job opportunities are provided, which contributes to reducing the unemployment rate, and thus reflects that on the poverty rate.
He added: Therefore, I believe that this step of merging the Ministries of Planning and International Cooperation is a step on the path to structural reform to achieve the desired economic and social development.
Cooperation with development partners
Director of the Vision Center for Economic Studies, Bilal Shoaib, said in exclusive statements to the Sky News Arabia Economy website that Al-Mashat’s performance in the international cooperation file was positive and distinguished, contributing to supporting the state’s ability to attract easy foreign financing and improving Egypt’s foreign relations with regional and international economic institutions.
It confirms the Minister’s ability to successfully manage the new ministry, continue to support Egypt’s foreign files, and obtain foreign funding.
Insightful vision
In this regard, the Egyptian economic expert, Mustafa Badra, said in statements to the “Sky News Arabia Economy” website that Al-Mashat has a keen and strong vision, and during his tenure as Minister of International Cooperation, she contributed to increasing the connection between Egypt and the external community, citing the recent agreements with the European Union as an example.
At the same time, he points out that the Minister of International Cooperation has achieved great success in the recent period, stressing the importance of coordination between the various parties involved in these files; to quickly implement and achieve many of the basic targets in this context.
Badra expects Al-Mashat to achieve success in the new ministerial portfolio after adding planning and economic development, in light of her vision and external communication with various international institutions.
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