Egypt Human Development Reports (EHDRs) with a Focus on 2010 EHDR on Youth in Egypt

1. Egypt Human Development Reports (EHDRs) with a Focus on 2010 EHDR on Youth in Egypt Presented by: Nahla Zeitoun Programme Analyst, UNDP Egypt

2. Outline • Role and Importance of Egypt Human Development Reports (EHDRs) • EHDRs and compliance with the six principles of UNDP’s Corporate Policy on the preparation of HDRs • EHDR Timeline • Challenges for the preparation of EHDRs • What makes a good HDR? • Data for EHDRs • 2010 EHDR

3. Role and Importance of EHDRs • To inform policy-making with evidence-based data and strong analysis • To provide alternative scenarios based on comparative experience • To devise evidence-based programmes • To reflect people’s aspirations and hopes

4. EHDRs and Compliance with UNDP’s Corporate Policy • 2. Participatory and inclusive preparation • Lead Author selects a multi-disciplinary team of around 30 national consultants • An Advisory Group is formed to provide advice and direction • A diverse Readers Group as well as a Peer Review Group are composed from various stakeholders • UNDP reviews the report for quality control and adherence to NHDR corporate policy. • EHDRs include in the Executive Summary a description of the preparation process to show the reader that it was done in an inclusive manner. 1. National ownership • Produced every 2 years by UNDP and the Institute of National Planning • The theme/topic for the EHDR is selected in a participatory manner • National Lead Author selected to lead team of core authors

5. EHDRs and Compliance with UNDP’s Corporate Policy • 4. Quality of analysis: • Adopt a people-centered approach • Provide sound and realistic policy messages • Contain a strong conceptual framework with clear definitions for concepts and principles. • Use a disaggregated HDI to capture exclusion and disparities across geographical areas, gender… • Draw on experiences of other countries as International best practices 3. Independence of analysis • EHDRs strive to contain objective and reliable analysis • The Lead Author exercises full editorial independent and represents a spectrum of perspectives • Disclaimer

6. EHDRs and Compliance with UNDP’s Corporate Policy • 5. Flexibility and creativity in presentation: • A strong Executive summary and/or overview at the beginning • Margin notes to highlight key messages • Written using easy-to-understand and non-technical language • Provide real examples that highlight people’s perspectives i.e. quotes • Employ a variety of presentation techniques such as tables, graphs, figures • 6. Sustained follow-up: • A comprehensive communication and outreach programme is designed to address a variety of audiences • High-level launch event organized with press kits and interviews lined up. • Arabic and English copies uploaded on UNDP website. • In some instances, UNDP uploads all background papers on website • An ongoing dialogue over the reports recommendations is maintained • Policy briefs prepared with key messages • Projects and programs designed to follow-up on report recommendations

7. EHDR Timeline • Preparatory Phase (up to 6months): • Theme Selection • Team building • Team Orientation • Outline formulation • Division of labor. • Research (6 to 9 months): • Research and preparation of background papers. • Workshop on draft background papers organized. • Finalization of Product (6-12 weeks): • Readers Group & Peer Review • Translation and printing • Advocacy (ongoing throughout and after Report finalization) • High level launch event • Post-launch events (roundtable discussions, consultations…) • Projects and Programmes devised

8. Challenges for the Preparation of EHDRs • Reliability of data • Shortage of data • Political Challenge

9. Data Sources used for EHDRsEHDR Sources of Data • 2. Administrative Records • 3. Special Surveys commissioned for EHDRs • Survey on Young People in Egypt (SYPE) • World Value Survey • Perception Surveys: • 4. Case Studies 1- Censuses and Surveys • Population, Housing and Establishments Census • Demographic and Health Survey (DHS): • Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HIECS): • Egypt Labor Market Survey (ELMS): • Statistical Year Book

10. Egypt Human Development Report 2010 Youth in Egypt: Building our Future

11. Egypt’s Youth Bulge, Social Exclusion and Waithood • Youth hold the power for change and for fulfilling a new social contract between citizen and state. • Those aged 18-29 number 19.8 million. This segment is larger than ever before and is thus described as a youth bulge. • Need enabling environments and policies for youth bulge to translate to Growth, Employment, & Social Inclusion. • Egypt stands at the crossroads whereby its youth bulge will either turn into a window of opportunity or an unemployment curse • Youth Exclusion • Youth exclusion leads to ‘waithood,’ a period during which they simply wait for their lives to begin • They wait in long periods of unemployment, living with parents, and unable to pursue marriage or home ownership. • Gender suffers particularly in a traditional country such as Egypt, where there are few opportunities for young women to participate in public life.

12. Message One: Overcoming Education System Failure • Outputs of the education system need to be aligned with demand in the labour market • Review balance across subjects, skills, and disciplines, upgrading of technical education. • Education shall serve as a tool for inclusion, social empowerment and competitiveness. • Empowering youth through education means it should instil values of citizenship to transform society in a democratic manner. • The need is to focus on reform of vocational training and skill building. Private sector firms and local businesses should be encouraged via incentive schemes to absorb the youth bulge. • Review curricula for each subject to instil problem-solving skills, entrepreneurship and management capacity, and the value of self-employment. • More emphasis should be placed on entrance requirements that link up to market needs, specifically language and computer skills.

13. Message Two: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty • Poverty means deprivation from basic opportunities and choices such as living a long healthy and creative life, with a decent income, enjoying freedom, dignity, self-respect and respect of others. • Cycle of Poverty: Unhealthy, poorly educated children can grow into young people with more limited capacity for learning and working. The poor of one generation are typically the children of the poor of the previous generation. • Geography: The results show large regional disparities with Upper Rural Egypt being the most deprived (43.7% of its residents are income poor). According to SYPE, whereas rural youth account for 59% of Egypt’s total youth, they account for 85% of Egypt’s poor youth. What is obvious, therefore, is that being poor is very much a characteristic of residing in rural Egypt and thus having less access to public goods and services.

14. Message Three: Job Creation • The informal sector currently represents the main source of employment for new labour market entrants. Therefore, the challenge is to improve the quality of jobs. Active labour market policies are needed: -enforcement of minimum wages -contribution to social security payments for new jobs for youth -employment services -education and TVET reform to meet labour market demands. • There are employment opportunities for achieving the MDGs in Egypt. Human resources are urgently needed in areas such as literacy campaigns, pre-school education, and social work in 1000 Villages and other poor areas. • Highly gendered labour market -Employment opportunities have diminished in the government sector. (6x more men than women are employed in the same age group) -Need for private sector incentives in support of women in the labour force. -Legislation can reduce the gender gap in wages and opportunity in private sector.

15. Technical and Vocational Education and Training • Technical and Vocational Education and Training has become a cornerstone for development, yet the Egyptian labour market still lacks technical and skilled workers in terms of number and competence. • Need to synchronize all government agencies currently working in isolation of each other, particularly through the formation of common grounds in training standards and certification requirements. • Demand- rather than supply-driven TVET institutions, using upgraded curricula and equipment • Need to improve working environment, salaries, and to introduce shorter working hours (WB Skills Development Project Survey) • Cost-sharing for training and tax incentives for employers to encourage them to invest in their human capital • Need to overcome young people’s reluctance and the social stigma labeling the technical route as a poor, second-chance option. • Awareness campaigns can demonstrate career rewards & financial benefits of TVET.

16. Entrepreneurship • Compared to 43 other countries in the 2008 Global Entrepreneurial Monitor, Egypt ranks 11th in early stage entrepreneurial activity. There are some 2 million youth under 30 years who have setup a business, however modest. • As the age groups 18-24 and 25-34 have the highest entrepreneurial rates of 12% and 15% respectively, Egypt’s youth give it a strong “entrepreneurial advantage” which has the potential to create the majority of jobs and enterprises in the coming years. • Efforts should be made to foster the development of entrepreneurial skills and to promote creativity, personal initiative and independent thinking among young people as part of the curricula and extra-curricular activities in the formal education system. • Need to improve the business environment and reduce bureaucracy, facilitate access to funding and marketing services , as well as skills training through dedicated programmes to support young entrepreneurs in the start-up and early stage growth process. • Introduction of SMEs and Franchising as more “flexible” business models , as well as Micro-enterprises for youth with simpler educational background through awareness campaigns to inspire and spread the culture of entrepreneurship among young people in Egypt.

17. Message Four: Focus on Culture • -Growing evidence of regression in attitudes of tolerance and respect of the other, whether directed at religious or gender affiliation. • -NGO-led youth initiatives in areas of social concern could overcome the bias towards narrow group attachments. • -Evidence also of teacher values and attitudes as well as constricted curriculum content responsible in part for this unfortunate trend. • -Cultural and behavioral approaches should be integrated into the teaching of scientific subjects. • -More emphasis on liberal educational material, and on music, theatre and the arts in general, would generate creative thinking and inventiveness. • -Discrimination against women is common in the Egyptian society presented in violence against women, sexual harassment, gender discrimination at work and FGM • -Create a  Suitable legislative environment that leads to the establishment and promotion and financing of institutions and organizations related to youth can meet the cultural needs of young men and women rather than focusing on the male as in youth centers • -Alliances with global youth initiatives would promote the ideas of both children and young people who have the mindset and talent to overcome limited world views.

18. Message Five: Eliminate Gender DiscriminationGender & Freedoms: The role and participation of young men & women in Development • Women and girls in particular are among the groups directly affected by deprivation in education, work, and enjoyment of natural rights enshrined in the Egyptian constitution and international treaties. • In Egypt, social conditioning (by the family, the legal systems, and the market) creates the roles to be played by both boys and girls in their society, and defines their interaction in public and private spheres. • The survey on Young People in Egypt (SYPE) indicates a considerable discrepancy between young men and women with regard to education, labor market participation, and participation in political life. There exist a number of negative practices and factors that impede the advancement of woman's role as an individual and citizen with rights and duties in the community, including the prevalence of sexual harassment in public places and at work, violence against women and female genital mutilation (FGM) still at a rate of 80%. • Egypt is rated number 120 among 128 countries on gender gap measurement. Women participation in the labor market is among the lowest in the world, for example, young women (aged 18-29) represent 18.5% of the Egyptian workforce compared to more than 50% of men. Also according to the survey, only 1% of girls spend their time in voluntary activity compared to 3% of men, and only 11% of young women participated in the last election, compared with 20% of men.

19. Labour Market and Education: closing the gender gap in education has not been matched by an increase of women participation in the labor market. The unemployment rate for women under 30 is 2 to 4 times higher that of males in 2009. It is not marriage or preference not to work that are the reasons behind unemployment, but the lack of equal opportunities in the work place, in addition to the family culture, and employer bias in favor of males. It is clear also that a large proportion of unemployed women do not find work at all until the age of 29 and then move out of actively searching for work. • Sexual harassment and violence: 50% of women samples have been subjected to some form of sexual harassment, and 43% said they experienced harassment in public transport and mostly did not inform the police. While the media has actively brought to the forefront the problem of sexual harassment, activists have called for greater application of Article (306) of the Penal Code. • About 86% of young men and women believe that beating their wife is justified in certain circumstances, and under the pretext of the right of the husband to his wife. There is also the wife’s fear from the consequences of separation or divorce, which may result in her social exclusion and her economic dependency and that of her children and becoming a burden on her family. • The prevalence of informal marriage (customary marriage) among young couples can be explained by the sexual desires at its peak in this phase, and the difficulty to overcome the economic and social requirement of formal/legitimate marriage. However, recourse to informal marriage means giving away a wide range of civil rights (especially for the girl).

20. Message Six: Youth Well-Being • The Youth Well-Being Index was prepared as part of the present 2010 EHDR and assesses progress on youth indicators in access to services, income and deprivation, gender, employment, civic participation, family life, leisure, and security. • Objectives: Provide a mapping of levels and severity of youth deprivation from basic rights and basic needs; situate Egypt’s youth in time to measure progress; situate Egypt’s youth to be able to compare their status with youth in other countries; and disseminate results and raise awareness among all social actors to encourage public debate. • Other studies and research initiatives should be used to supplement the data base for the Index and serve to inform policy makers on youth areas needing special interventions.

21. 3. Hunger & Poverty 1. Percentage of young living in absolute poverty 2. Percentage of young living in poverty 3. Percent of underweight youth 4. Income distribution 5. Wealth index for youth 6. Percent of youth living in house with 5+ persons per room 4. Health 1. Percent married young women using modern contraception 2. Rate of youth with disability 3. Smoking 4. Adolescent fertility as % of total fertility 5. Top 3 reported deaths by cause 6. Prob for 15-year old of dying before 25 7. Rate of Overweight (age 6-19) 8. Youth Mental Health 9. Lifetime prevalence drug abuse 10. % of youth with knowledge of HIV/AIDS 11. HIV prevalence rate among youth 1. Education 1. Gross enroll ratio sec edu 2. Net enroll rate sec edu 3. Gross enroll rate tertiary edu 4. Youth's School Drop-outs 5. Youth literacy 6. Transition rate to gen sec edu 7. Average years edu of 24 year old 2. Employment 1. Youth labour force participation rates 2. Share of working 16-24 olds in a formal sector job 3. Youth unemployment (15-24, 25-29, 30-35 year) 4. Ratio of youth unemployment to total unemployment 5. Weekly Earnings 6. Weekly Hours Worked

22. 5. Environment 1. % youth severely deprived of water 2. % youth severely deprived of sanitation 3. Air Quality 6. Security 1. Rate of convicted Youth admitted to closed institutions 2. Percentage of young at prison of total people at prison 7. Leisure-Time Activities 1. Percent youth no leisure-time 2. Total time doing physical activity 3. Passive Leisure Time 8. The Situation of Girls & Young Women 1. % of women undergone FGC 2. Percent of women married before 3. Absolute reported cases of sexual harassment 9. Participation in Decision Making 1. Percent of youth who feel tolerance & respect exist in society 2. Trust in others 3. Percent of youth participating in volunteering activities 4. Percent of youth who have Electoral card 5. Percent of Youth participating in voting 6. Percent of Youth participating in Political Activity 10. ICT 1. Proportion of young who used computer in last 12 months 2. Proportion of young who used Internet in last 12 months 3. Computer access in schools/ universities 4. Access to IT clubs 5. Percentage of youth have cell phone 6. Percentage of youth with access to land line phone

23. Enhancing Youth Participation in Socio-Political Life and Public Sphere Message Seven: Governance Is it about youth passiveness or the absence of an enabling environment for socio-political inclusion? • Restrictions on freedom of expression and demonstration under the emergency law and the security interference in socio-political activities within educational institutions, above all universities, as well as the arrest of activist bloggers; • Fraud in the electoral process, which has been repeatedly proven by judicial acts; • Predominance of the culture of fear on youth as well as parents’ warning from engaging in any political activity, specially if it was in an opposing direction to the regime; • The failure of secular state institutions - political parties, schools, universities, youth centers and sports clubs – in the socio-political inclusion of youth led to the withdrawal of young people to non-governmental institutions of a religious nature to engage in civic activities; • Youth centers and clubs center on sports rather than on training youth in leadership and life skills, vocational and IT proficiency, and also at nurturing democratic practices. • Rampant corruption, nepotism and cronyism and weak rule of law; • Youth coping with problems of poverty, unemployment, inflation and family formation … etc.

24. YOUTH VISION Towards Enhancing Youth Participation in Socio-Political Life & Public Sphere Message Seven: Governance • Establishing the culture of participation among youth through educational institutions, civil society organizations and media; • Expanding programs of political education and developing programs on leadership skills • Support early participation of youth – starting of the primary school - in the process decision making in order to create a generation capable of taking responsibility, independent thinking and decision-making; • Encourage youth to express their opinions, instead of controlling them in the framework of a patriarchal system that undermines their abilities; • Activating secular forums and platforms for the integration of youth in socio-political life so as to enhance their sense of belonging, loyalty and citizenship. This is meant to cope with the religious polarization of society resulted in part from youth tendency to participate in religious institutions, which eventually promotes religious loyalty at the expense of citizenship; • Cease to intimidating youth to express their opinions. • Reform of government performance in the framework of a rational system for human resources management based on efficiency, both in recruitment and promotion; • Effective implementation of decentralization policies, particularly in its political dimension, which will open new platforms for socio-political participation at local levels.

25. Message Eight: Migration • Migration broadens young people’s opportunities and offers them a way to earn higher income and gain skills. • Therefore, the state should support migration under a holistic and institutionalized approach dictated by Egypt’s current human resource structure. • Egypt’s education and skills formation programmes should cater for host countries’ labour market demands based on studies of future prospects, particularly those of Europe and the emerging oil economies. • The state should also negotiate labour movements with host countries on the basis of temporary migration (4-5 years) and terms that are win-win for all concerned. • A best practice is tailor-made programs for young trainees to acquire specific skills needed in Italy’s labor market.

26. Message Nine: Breaking the Land Constraint • A national scheme, ‘project land’ proposes the distribution • of parcels of land to youth in Egypt‘s new regions such as the desert • fringes (zaheersahrawi), along the Nile Valley, the coastlines, and • new cities and urban developments. • The conditions are that youth beneficiaries will settle the lands and engage in innovative projects in small-scale tourism, eco-friendly agriculture, and other high value-added activities such as ICT, transport and housing. • Entrepreneurship needs to start from ownership of some asset in addition to human capital and providing youth with physical capital assets will thus open new avenues of employment and prosperity; the purpose is to introduce a key element that caters both for distributive justice and for good investment fundamentals.

27. Thank You