Social justice and providing equal opportunities for all are among the most important demands of the post-revolution period, especially at a time when the slowing economy has led to an increase in the number of those unemployed. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt's unemployment rate now stands at just over 13 per cent. One effort to help bring down that number was presented recently by the World Bank. “The bank has financed an emergency labour-intensive project with $200 million, which is considered one of the most important schemes after the revolution,” said Hartwig Schafer, the World Bank's country director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. “The project will create 250,000 job opportunities for unskilled workers in Upper Egypt and poorer areas across the country,” Schafer added during a workshop entitled “Unequal opportunities and social justice in Egypt” organised this week by Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS) and the Centre for Economic and Financial Research and Studies. Schafer said that the project aimed to help support local communities hard hit by the economic slowdown through investing in the rehabilitation of infrastructure as well as schools and rural roads. “Creating opportunities and allowing ordinary individuals to benefit from them is a fundamental prerequisite to achieving social justice,” said Hala Al-Said, dean of the FEPS. She said that barriers that distinguish between citizens on the basis of gender or other factors should not be allowed to exist in any society, adding that the large income gap that exists in Egypt should be narrowed through the implementation of a minimum and maximum wage. “This would help encourage workers to develop their businesses and eventually help increase production and revive economic life,” Al-Said said. She said that many Egyptian workers lacked proper training, which negatively affected production. “Employers should cooperate with the government in rehabilitating Egyptian labour,” she stressed. Lire Ersado, an economist at the World Bank, agreed that the labour market in Egypt faced many challenges. “A recent survey by the World Bank in Egypt showed that the education system doesn't meet the labour market's requirements, thus creating inequality in access to opportunities and income,” he said. For Hassan Ali, head of the Economic Association of the Middle East, political conditions, education, wages, and parental jobs all affected job-seekers. “The World Bank survey showed that many jobs are filled through nepotism, and the government should fight this in order to create real equal opportunities,” he said. Ersado stressed that equal job opportunities for young people could only be provided through equal educational opportunities that provide quality and proper training.
