“A pauper is someone who wants to achieve something but can't. Poverty is to lose your parents, not to find food, clean water or someone to care about you. "Poverty is not to find at your school a good teacher, clean toilets or a place to play in. Poverty is not to find clean hospitals, when you suffer from mosquitoes and insects." This was the definition of poverty given by a group of Egyptian children from different governorates of the nation in a recent study conducted by the Centre for Economic and Financial Research and Studies (CEFRS), Cairo University, entitled ‘Child Poverty and Disparities in Egypt'. Although their definitions do not match the national or international definition for poverty, defined as living on less than $2 a day, it does describe the state of more people in Egypt who may live under the poverty line. The study showed that more than 7 million Egyptian children (one in four) are deprived of one or more of their rights to be children and enjoy their childhood. Around 1.2 million children live in absolute poverty, which means they are deprived of two or more rights. More than 1.4 million children live on less than $1 per day and 15.6 million children on less than $2. According to the study, 5 million children are deprived of appropriate housing conditions (including shelter, water and sanitation), while 1.6 million children under five years suffer health and food deprivation. The study uses a rights-based framework to child poverty that defines poverty as multidimensional and not only a lack of income or low consumption. The eight dimensions of poverty, considered in the study (income, shelter, food, education, information, health, sanitation, water), are interrelated and interdependent. If a child is deprived of one of its rights, it's likely to affect his/her ability to exercise other rights. "Toilets at schools for example, should be given great care and attention, as they might discourage children from attending school," says Alia el-Mahdi, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. El-Mahdi, who also led the study's research team, adds that, during the focus group discussion with the children, some of the children said the main reason they didn't go to school was that they couldn't afford the uniform. "What is important is not just to provide these children with a uniform but also with a daily meal," el-Mahdi stresses. The study, whose findings were published last week, deals with millions of Egyptian children deprived of their rights and facing the risk of passing this deprivation on to their children. The study found that around 5 million children were deprived of appropriate housing conditions, including shelter, water and sanitation, and 1.6 million children under five years old suffer health and food deprivation, according to the study which explains that income poverty and deprivation measures are not synonymous. "Households with children who experience income poverty may or may not experience other forms of deprivation," says the study, which found that income poverty is highly correlated to shelter deprivation, while, among children living in the wealthiest fifth of all households with children, 17.6 per cent experience food deprivation. The strange thing the study discovered is that the impressive economic growth in recent years, reaching as high as 7.2 per cent in 2008, hasn't led to an appropriate reduction in income poverty or deprivation. The study adds that budgets for authorities benefiting children have grown three times as slowly as budgets for other authorities. "Children, who represent one-third of Egypt's citizens today, should be explicitly considered in any poverty mapping or poverty reduction programme," stresses Moushira Khattab, Egypt's Minister of State for Family and Population, adding that such studies will help the decision-makers to tailor their policies according to real facts and data. Khattab explains that caring for children is a legal duty of the Government, since it has signed the international accords of children welfare. The study is one of nearly 50 country studies initiated by UNICEF and carried out in all regions of the world. "Despite the global progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, millions of children and women in the world are still being left behind. With the deadline of 2015 approaching, UNICEF has taken up a plan to leverage evidence, analysis, policy and partnership, in order to promote gender equality and deliver results for all children," says UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Sigrid Kaag. Kaag adds that this study is a manifestation of the priority UNICEF is giving globally to address child poverty in an evidence-based and comprehensive manner. Although the study has shown an increase in the number of deprived children in Egypt, it also indicates that progressive changes have recently been made to legislate in children's favour. There have been many amendments to the Child Law enacted in 2008, demonstrating efforts to align national policy with international legal instruments. It also shows that, although Egypt owns a multitude of social programmes for children and their families, they haven't prevented the observed increase in child poverty. The results indicate that both girls and boys are vulnerable to poverty and deprivation at similar rates and that poverty among children is more highly concentrated in rural areas and higher in Upper Egypt than Lower Egypt. The study also asserts that the more education a woman receives, the less likely she is to raise her children in a poor household on all measures of poverty and deprivation. In their recommendations, the authors of the study say that socio-economic policies need to be paired with programmes for improving the quality and coverage of Egypt's social infrastructure. "Investing in the social infrastructure to support children and their families is an investment in Egypt's future," says the study in its policy recommendations. The authors add that the most successful policies, therefore, are those that tackle child poverty on multiple fronts, as the problem is a result of complex interactions between household structures, job market conditions, Government support and other factors. In their testimonies, some of the children described child labour as a very dangerous crime. Many agreed that things would be far better for them if their parents were given a job. The study states that better participation of parents in the labour market should be promoted by supplementing family income support through measures such as facilitating access to small and micro credit, income compensation and free or subsidised access to child care. The study also found that, in spite of political commitment, expansion of early childhood education facilities has been insufficient. The study shows that there needs to be an inter-ministerial effort to initiate a national programme to spread the culture of sports, physical exercise and a healthy lifestyle for girls and boys of all ages. It also suggests that the establishment and expanded coverage of community libraries, community centres and other safe places for children, where they can exercise and express themselves, should be an important element in national policies and programmes for youth.
