Egypt

SINCE ITS INDEPENDENCE in 1952, several presidents have ruled Egypt. Each of them had his vision of national development and thus different perspectives of solving economic problems, especially poverty. During Gamal Abdel Nasser's era (1953–70), a policy of nationalization was implemented. This was based on redistributing wealth in Egypt to emphasize a balance between the rich and poor people. The policy helped in poverty eradication in parallel with the industrialization plan that was set in motion early in the 1960s.

During the era of Anwar Sadat, the third Egyptian president (1970–81), Egypt began to liberalize its trade policies in 1975 and witnessed a growth spurt of 7.1 percent per year for the following 10 years. Capitalist restructuring and attendant poverty did not originate in the 1990s; nascent forms of capitalist restructuring were started in the mid-1970s with the proclamation of an “open-door” policy.

An incessant growth of poverty can be documented over the last 20 years. But the root causes of the growth of poverty should perhaps be dated earlier. During Hosni Mubarak's rule (1981 to present), the Egyptian government continued development plans, but with a drop in Gross National Product of 1.4 percent in 1992, the government responded with a significant economic reform package. It tightened fiscal policy, decreased social subsidies, decontrolled interest rates, liberalized capital, and undertook reforms to enable privatization of the Egyptian economy.

Although poverty is always one of the main items of any development plan in Egypt, either short- or long-term, one of the aspects of enduring poverty is that percentages of poor women are slightly higher than those of males. Poverty rates include 21.85 percent of the population for females, compared to 20.98 percent for males, in rural areas. The corresponding figures in urban areas are 18.7 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively. Simulation analysis showed that being a female increases the probability of being poor by 2.3 percentage points in urban areas and by 4.79 percentage points in rural areas. About 36 percent of both men and women in northern urban areas in Egypt are poor and 67 percent are moderately poor.

The key elements of attacking poverty in Egypt are through building and enhancing all types of assets. Promoting economic assets, especially labor, credit, and land, and access to health and education services are only some parts of the multidimensional strategy to diminish poverty. Increasing social and political assets of the poor, through solidarity and groups of actions, are also important to help the poor fight poverty themselves.

Egypt is undergoing a structural adjustment process guided by the international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Egyptian economy is widely acclaimed to have successfully completed the prescribed stabilization phase and is, by some accounts, poised to embark on a fast-growth trajectory. However, this transformation has resulted in a changing economic structure, with far-reaching implications for poverty in the country. Poverty has been on the rise in the midst of affluence for a few.

Human Development Index Rank: 119 Human Poverty Index Rank: 55