The government has always attached paramount importance to upgrading underprivileged areas nationwide within the framework of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s directives to improve basic services for villages and people in most need.
Citizens in these areas suffer from inadequate medical, educational and social services.
The percentage of people living below the poverty line in Egypt was 25.2 per cent in fiscal year 2010-2011 and increased to 26.3 per cent in 2012-2013. It rose further in 2015 to 27.8 per cent and then fell 4.7 per cent to 32.5 per cent in 2017-2018.
Eliminating poverty in Egypt became an emergency that required a special and unique approach.
On January 2, 2019, President Sisi launched an initiative to improve the standards of living in the neediest community groups across the country and upgrade services in marginalised villages.
The Haya Karima or ‘Decent Life’ initiative, which targets the development of Egypt’s countryside in three years, witnesses a unique collaboration between ministries concerned, the private sector and the civil society.
Data showed that the villages, largely concentrated in Giza, Minya, Assiout, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, New Valley, Qalyoubia, Beheira, Marsa Matrouh, and North Sinai, all have a poverty rate of 70 per cent or more.
Reports also indicate that the urban frontier governorates witnessed the lowest poverty rate, while rural Upper Egyptian governorates showed the highest.
Accordingly, the initiative is aimed at improving living-standards, investing in human capital, developing infrastructure services, raising the quality of human development services and boosting economic growth.
Unprecedented development
“Egypt is the only country in the world that has achieved a positive growth rate during the coronavirus crisis, with the private sector being an essential partner in the development process,” Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala el-Saeed said in recent remarks, in reference to ‘Decent Life’.
In February, the United Nations praised the initiative that has helped mitigate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic by improving living standards for the poorest in society.
A UN report said the initiative has also provided jobs through supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The goals of the initiative are to be achieved through providing decent housing, water and sanitation, as well as medical and educational services for deprived families, establishing micro-projects and lending support periodically for those most in need.
In 2020, ‘Decent Life’ was announced as a non-profit organisation to implement the objectives of the initiative through the co-operation of the ministries of local development, social solidarity, and planning in addition to the participation of 16 civil society organisations.
Phases
The initiative is divided into three geographical phases, according to the percentage of need across villages.
The first phase includes villages with poverty rates of 70 per cent or more which need urgent intervention.
The second phase covers the villages with poverty rates between 50-70 per cent.
The third includes the villages recording poverty at 50 per cent and less.
The initiative is planned to be implemented on two phases.
The first phase (2019-2020) covered 372 villages in 67 centres at 14 governorates, with a population of 4.46 million people. The second phase (2021-2023) affects 1,371 villages in 2021 and about 3,299 villages in 2022 and 2023, with a total of 4,670 villages in 175 centres and 20 governorates, to serve 57 per cent of the population by the end of the initiative.
Egypt’s sustainable development plan for fiscal year 2021-2022 has allocated LE200 billion for the social initiative Haya Karima and the plan was approved by parliament.
The plan identifies 20 governorates to benefit from the initiative with a total number of 1,367 villages and around 17.5 citizens.
The LE200-billion budget allocated for the initiative will be invested in health (LE27.5 billion), education (LE4.4 billion), electricity (LE20 billion), sanitation and drinking water (LE102 billion) and paving roads (LE12.2 billion).
Considered the largest of Egypt’s national projects, the budget for Haya Karima exceeds LE700 billion.
“Without this initiative, we would have not achieved this development in less than 15-20 years,” Minister el-Saeed said in previous statements.
The initiative is preparing to replace, renew and develop a number of bridges, establish 1,388 roads and build 162 new youth centres across Egypt’s countryside.
In the field of communications, the initiative executes a number of projects to connect homes with fiber-optic cables, develop post offices in villages and provide them with mobile towers.
The initiative also targets as part of its developmental plan to empower and support female breadwinners. It aims to establish projects for breadwinners, widows and divorced women and young girls. Haya Karima has reached several remote villages in Upper Egypt, to fulfill citizens’ hope for a decent life.
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