Egypt’s Ministry of Local Development has launched the inaugural “‘Gadeer'” Award for Excellence and Innovation, aimed at local administration personnel in the governorates. The announcement was made on Saturday, March 15, 2025.
The award, under the patronage of Minister of Local Development Manal Awad, is designed to support excellence and innovation within the local administration system. The ministry said that it is one of several individual awards that it is launching to promote competitiveness, improve performance quality in local administration, and strive for continuous improvement. It also seeks to instil a culture of efficiency and functional effectiveness.
“‘Gadeer'” aims to “target leaders and employees of local authorities to stimulate a spirit of competition and institutional creativity for the sustainability of outstanding performance,” said Awad.
Awad stated that the “‘Gadeer'” award is based on the concept of competency, which focuses on an employee’s possession of behavioral and functional skills that enable them to perform their job effectively.
The objectives of the award are to promote a culture of excellence and administrative innovation, stimulate outstanding resources in local administration to sustain distinguished performance, utilise applicable creative ideas in the development of local administration, generalise positive and successful practices in various sectors of local development, highlight role models in local administration, and support competencies.
The award targets all personnel working in local administration, including senior and middle management in all sectors and functional levels within the ministry and governorates. The award includes four main categories:
- Category A: Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-Generals
- Category B: Heads of centres, cities, districts, and Director-Generals
- Category C: Heads of village local units
- Category D: Outstanding employees in all sectors
Essam El-Gohary, Assistant Minister of Local Development for Development, Training, Digital Transformation, and Supervisor of the Local Development Centre in Saqqara, stated that the “‘Gadeer'” award will be implemented under the supervision of the Local Development Training Centre in Saqqara, according to a 60-day timeframe from the date of the award announcement. The timeframe will be published on the official page of the ministry, the Saqqara Centre, and in official communications to the governorates.
El-Gohary stated that eligibility requirements for the “‘Gadeer'” award include being currently employed and holding the current position for at least one year, being at least 35 years old, having a clean record with no prior disciplinary or judicial referrals, and holding a higher education qualification.
