What Are the Main Challenges Impeding Implementation of the Spatial Plans in Egypt Using Ecotourism Development as an Example?

Emad Kenawy,Aref Alshamndy,Taher Osman

doi:10.3390/socsci6030075

Abstract

In Egypt, highly technical plans are drawn up, but nobody puts them into practice. They always end up gathering dust on the shelves of national agencies or local government without being utilised to make improvements to local economic or environmental well-being. This is because such plans did not reflect the stakeholder interests nor deal with their conflicts. The collaborative planning approach is exalted as one of the best methods to help reach a consensus between the stakeholders about the issues and to advance shared solutions and then increase the likelihood of successful implementation of a plan. However, the stakeholder collaboration and engagement practice in Egypt remains ineffective. This research seeks to investigate and understand the challenges and barriers that have hindered the efficiency of stakeholder engagement during ecotourism planning as a sectorial case study by focusing on two case studies, and critiquing existing experiences of ecotourism development planning based upon a conceptual framework for investigating and understanding those challenges. Evidence was drawn from a critical documentary review, and combined with observation and semi-structured interviews with 56 ecotourism experts and stakeholders. The analysis suggests that the stakeholder engagement was tokenistic, and the central government was still dominant. This is a result of three groups of challenges including deficiencies in operationalising stakeholder engagement and challenges associated with the government and non-government stakeholder groups.

Highlights

IntroductionThe planning system is still based on a top-down process that suffers from centrality and a central government monopoly of decision-making in most of the steps
The inadequacies of the traditional planning approach for such a complex domain as spatial development is seen as one of the most critical factors impeding the implementation of plans in Egypt.the planning system is still based on a top-down process that suffers from centrality and a central government monopoly of decision-making in most of the steps
Insufficient Stakeholder Network Building was as a Result of (a) Omission in identifying appropriate stakeholders: The internal stakeholder lists, for both initiatives, did not include all the relevant groups. Several governmental agencies such as General Organization of Physical Planning (GOPP), statutory organisations, universities and research centres were excluded from both initiatives

Summary

Introduction

The planning system is still based on a top-down process that suffers from centrality and a central government monopoly of decision-making in most of the steps. The process of producing plans focuses on high technical quality, based on consultants’ experiences and successful case studies in other developing countries. Such plans rarely meet relevant stakeholders’ interests. They are not put into practice and end up gathering dust on the shelves (Bonilla 2008). In Egypt, the lack of negotiation between the relevant stakeholders with competing interests in the same location has led to conflict and overlap between different, often sectionally focused, development plans for the same area. There are multiple and frequent plans for the same place under different names and responsibilities, which has led to incongruous proposals for land use and failure

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Results

Conclusion