19-20 Jan 2009

1. Report on Child Poverty And Disparities In Egypt 19-20 Jan 2009

2. Team Members • Alia El Mahdi (Team Leader), Sr. Economist • Heba el Leithy, Sr. Statistician • Manal Metwally, Sr. Economist • Habiba Wasef, Sr. Health Nutrition Specialist • Dina Magdi, Jr. Statistician • Anwar Abdel Aal , Jr. Economist • Moataz Atallah, Jr. Education Specialist

3. Outline of the Presentation I-Introduction; II-Contents III-Main Findings

4. I-Introduction The progress of nations is measured by how much it is interested in childhood issues. Child poverty is affecting the lives of millions of children worldwide . This report deals with issues related to child poverty in Egyptand its main determinants and recent trends. Also, it designs, develops and delivers a child poverty profile that will be a basis for monitoring the progress of changes in the well-being of children and for understanding the impact of government policies on them.

5. II-Contents of the report Part one (Introduction): presents the basic definitions and methodological issues related to child poverty within both an international and a national framework. Part two (Child Poverty Using Income Approach): presents the different dimensions of child poverty in Egypt. Part three (Prevalence of Deprivations and Absolute Poverty in Egypt): describes the main socio-economic characteristics of absolute poverty in Egypt and classifies it into urban and rural poverty, then classifies it according to regions. Parts four and five (Extent of Seven Severe Deprivations & Other Sorts of Deprivations): deal with several deprivation indicators that better explain the extent of child poverty in the economy.

6. Contents – Cont. Part six (Children’s Perception of Poverty and its Effect on their lives): provides qualitative assessment of children’s perception of poverty. Part seven (Children's Legal Rights in Egypt): reviews children’s legal rights in Egypt. Part eight (Public Expenditure Analysis and Budgeting): undertakes an analysis of children’s budgeting. Part nine (Policies and Programs to Reduce Child Poverty ): presents the policies and programs designed to reduce child poverty. Part ten (Summary and policy Implications):

7. What is new in this Study? • Comprehensive coverage of child poverty; • Multi-dimensional definitional Approach; • Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques of Evaluation;

8. Voices of the Children: How do they define Poverty? • “The poor are those who don’t own land” Children from Menia 11-14 Y • Deprivation from emotions, education, family life, and health are more important than deprivation from food and drink”. Children from Port Said 15-18 Y old. • “Poverty means a lot of children, no money and no clothes”. Children from Giza 15-18Y

9. Voices of the Children: How do they define Poverty? • “Poverty means no money and no suitable clothes to go to school with. “Children from Menia 11-14 Y • “Poverty is deprivation of water sanitation, entertainment and toilets”. Children from Cairo 8-10 Y • “Poor children go to poor schools, where there is bad and violent teachers, poor education, broken equipments, no bathrooms”

10. What makes children happy? • “ Praying for God, reading, studying, beginning of the school year, the feast…..(Cairo 8-10 Y old children). • Success, happiness of family and relatives and friends…..(Menia 8-10 Y old children). • “Equal opportunities with rich people” Giza 15-18 Y old children. • “ Pass the exams and have new clothes” Giza 8-10 Y old children.

11. III-Main Findings

12. Different Types of Children’s Deprivation

13. Depth of Deprivation amongst children • 23% representing 6.4 million children in Egypt, experienced one or more forms of deprivation. • 19% or 5.237 mill. children suffer from one severe deprivation. • 17.8 % of children experienced shelter, water or sanitation deprivations or combination of them, indicating that about 5 million Egyptian children suffer from housing deprivation in its broader sense. • One million child of less than 5 years of age suffered from health or food deprivation (11.9 percent), and 82 thousands child (0.9 percent) suffered from both health and food deprivations

14. Major Determinants of Deprivation Rural Areas. Household’s size. Mother's education Household’s Poverty Household’s Wealth

15. Links between different Forms of Deprivation • Income poverty is closely related to all forms of deprivation; • Food and health deprivation are moderately correlated to income poverty , indicating that food and health deprivations are outcomes of other factors rather than income (eg.: diarrhea prevalence, availability of basic health services); • The prevalence of Diarrhea is higher among children who are water deprived

16. What are the main recent achievements in the field of child–related policies? The New Children’s Act (Act 126/2008) The formation of a general committee in each governorate headed by the governor and members of the Security Directorates specialized in social affairs, education and health and a representative from civil society institution concerned with child. This committee will be responsible for designing the public policy related to child protection and supervising its implementation.

17. B-The main achievements -cont -A medical examination must be done for the child before being accepted in any work. Periodic re-examination is done at least each year. -The establishment of a fund under the NCCM named as the “Childhood and Motherhood Care Fund” that takes the responsibility of financing the spending on children needs. -A National Strategy for Street Children was launched in 2003.Pilot interventions were implemented at the grassroots level. -NCCM has developed a national Strategy of Children with Disabilities to orchestrate the inputs of all sectors working in this field.

18. Urgent action is still needed in different areas,,,, Absence of agreed upon national nutrition policydirectives; Observed decline in practice of exclusive breast feeding; Absence of a food intake monitoring system; Updated national Food Based Dietary Guidelines not available; Inadequate nutrition content of basic health services; High parasitic infestation rates and repeated diarrheal attacks.

19. Urgent action is still needed,,,, continued • Absence of a Food Law ; • The lack of coordination among household income efforts and the absence of a mechanism for regular monitoring and evaluation of SMEs programs, both of which could potentially play a role in increasing their effectiveness. • The challenges facing the education sector are immense, complex and fundamentally systemic.

20. Thank You For Your Attention