While Egypt has attained progress on various Millennium Development Goals, it still faces challenges in the areas of poverty eradication, hunger and gender equality, Sherine Nasr reports Egypt's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report 2010, was recently released to mark the country's progress, identify priorities as well as future plans to ensure the achievement of the MDGs before the 2015 deadline. Of the eight-goal list, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger comes on top. According to the report, Egypt halved the number of people living in extreme poverty (those living below $1.25 per day) to 3.4 per cent in 2008/09 compared to 8.2 per cent in 1990. "A national programme targeting the poorest villages has been enacted," said Osman Mohamed Osman, minister of economic development during the launch of Egypt MDGs report 2010 held in Cairo last week. Osman noted that the New Social Contract initiated in 2005 and economic growth helped decrease the proportion of those living in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, Egypt is facing a serious challenge realising the MDGs related to achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people and to halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015. "Trends analysis has shown that while Egypt has made impressive progress on each of the MDGs, it continues to face challenges related to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as well as gender equality and the empowerment of women," said Mounir Thabet, country director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Egypt. Looking at disparities and equitable distribution of income, the report underlines that poverty is mainly an agrarian phenomenon since nearly 77 per cent of the total poor live in rural areas. "Rural Upper Egypt is the most vulnerable region where the poverty incidence is almost twice the national average, falling close to 40 per cent," the report indicates. Disparities in regions are also noticeable. According to studies, while the overall national poverty rate was estimated at 19.6 per cent in 2005, it reaches 32.5 per cent in Upper Egypt and 39.1 per cent in rural Upper Egypt in comparison to 14.5 per cent in Lower Egypt and only 5.7 per cent in urban governorates. "The poverty rate was the highest in Assiut (60.6 per cent), followed by Beni Sweif (45.4 per cent) and Sohag (40.7 per cent), whereas the corresponding figures in Suez, Damietta and Cairo were 2.4, 2.6 and 2.6 respectively." The report has also shown that even having a job did not help to avoid poverty. Indicators have shown that in recent years, the market did not produce good quality jobs. For example, 75 per cent of jobs created between 1998-2006 were in the informal sector. "These are neither productive nor decent," said the report. In the private sector, meanwhile, employees still face problems related to social and health insurance. Moreover, the report underlined that those working in occasional jobs, more likely to fall into poverty, represent 37 per cent in comparison to less than 16 per cent of permanent-job holders. These trends, according to the report, indicate that Egypt is unlikely to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2015. On a more optimistic front, the target of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger will most likely be met by 2015. Already a 40 per cent decline in the number of people suffering from hunger has been registered in the period between 1992 and 2008. As for poverty eradication, the report underlines that the main challenge facing efforts to reduce poverty levels in Egypt is to maintain higher income per-capita over a long period of time. According to the report, the low labour productivity and the increasing number of job seekers are major challenges that have to be met in order to translate higher growth rates into higher income rates for the poor. On the issue of primary education as the second goal, Egypt is likely to achieve primary education for all boys and girls on time. The report indicates that in 2008-09, net enrolment ratio for primary education reached 96 per cent. However, not attending school and dropping out is still one of the major problems. "It is noticeable that the percentage of the children between six and 12 who ever enrolled in schools positively collates with the level of the wealth," said Hussein Abdel-Aziz, professor of statistics at Cairo University and lead author of the report. "Reforming the curricula, training teachers to be more professional and enhancing student activities are all part of a national plan to upgrade the quality of education," said Abdel-Aziz. Promoting gender equality and empowering women is Egypt's third commitment. Although women's participation in the labour force increased from 18 per cent in 1984 to 23.1 per cent in 2008, it still falls behind the average rate of growth of the participation of men. In the meantime, the unemployment rate among women has reached 22.9 per cent in 2009 that is 4.3 times more the rate for men which is estimated at 5.27 per cent. At the national level, the participation of women in the informal sector is very high. According to the report, between 1995-2008 almost half the women in the labour force are working in the informal sector. The rate almost doubles in urban areas while it slightly declines in rural areas. Moving to the fourth target, Egypt has already reached the goal for reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds while reducing the neonatal mortality is still a challenge. Meanwhile, Egypt's achievements in reducing maternal mortality ratio which is a major component of the fifth goal to improve maternal health, is providing evidence that the country is meeting that goal by 2015. On the issue of protecting the environment, the report has warned that climate change could have an adverse effect on the development process and not just environmental aspects. According to the report, water resources are very vulnerable to climate change. "The expected effects that may aggravate the situation include changes in the river flows which could cause water shortage, deterioration of ground water quality, change in rainfalls and in wind directions," the report said. Key success policies would include the efficient management of water resources, treatment of municipal waste water and re-using it for different purposes, incorporating the principle of environment sustainability within the various sectoral plans.
