Egypt's mechanisms to combat poverty in 20/21's sustainable development plan

CAIRO – 9 July 2020: President Abdel Fatah El Sisi ratified Tuesday Egypt’s sustainable development plan for current fiscal year 2020/2021. The plan included mechanisms to combat poverty through several factors.

Egypt Today reviews decisions and initiatives that aim to improve citizens’ conditions, advance the incapable groups and improve their provided services.

According to the new sustainable development plan, the mechanisms to combat poverty are as follows:

1. Support small and micro projects through various initiatives, and activate productive families’ programs.

2. Support the micro-projects of female breadwinners through social solidarity programs "for example, Mastora project"

3. Increase the vocational and professional training centers for the youth.

4. Develop social protection system and extend social safety nets, such as presidential initiative Haya Karima (Decent Life), and target 10 million families who benefit from the Takaful and Karama Program.

5. Extend the social security umbrella for irregular employment.

6. Activate care and rehabilitation programs for those who bereft of a family care.

7. Development of social defense institutions (the Homeless Children program).

8. Review the tax exemption limit and the minimum wage in light of inflation rates.

9. Mainstream school feeding process for all levels of education.

10. Continue containing inflation and enhance the role of regulatory agencies in the markets. "The Consumer Protection Agency, and the Competition Protection Agency” and preventing monopolistic practices / catering offices”

11. Resume the comprehensive health insurance system to cover all governorates according to specific programs.

12. Improve the conditions of pensioners through: increasing the value of pensions and considering establishing an independent entity to invest in social security and pension funds.

13. Provide adequate water, sanitation and housing services in poor areas.

14. Adhere to the timetable for the development of slums.

15. Raise the efficiency of the catering offices in the governorates to tighten market supervision.

16. Comprehensive development of Upper Egypt and border governorates.

17. Distribute public investments in a manner that takes into account developmental gaps to reduce economic and social disparities between the various regions of the Republic, so that the gap in poverty rates does not exceed 20 percentage points between governorates, and (5 percentage points) in unemployment rates.

In June, the Egyptian parliament approved the general report of the plan and budget committee on the draft of the third year plan (2020/2021) of the medium-term sustainable development plan (2018-2019-2021-2022), the state’s general budget project, budgets of the public economic bodies, and the budget of the National Military Production Authority for the fiscal year 2020/2021.

Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala Al-Saeed, said earlier that there is general agreement that the 2020/2021 plan is an exceptional plan that differs from others in its directions, goals and priorities, in light of the conditions of exposure to the coronavirus crisis.

She added that the plan aims to preserve the life of the Egyptian citizen, and to provide adequate health care and adequate living conditions, which enables him to return to normal life as soon as possible and with the least possible damage.

Moreover, she stated that Egypt's unemployment rate to dip to 8.5% by end of 2020/2021 in case COVID-19 crisis ended during FY 2019/2020. 

“Egypt targets growth rate of 4.5% in 20/21 but might decline to 3.5% in case the outbreak of COVID-19 continued,” Saeed.