The second United Nations Common Country Assessment (CCA) for Egypt marks an attempt to provide an updated and comprehensive analysis of the national development situation from the perspective of the UN system in the country. This analysis has been undertaken by the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in consultation with the Government of Egypt (GoE) and UN system partners in the donor community, research institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Conceived as a substantive analytical instrument and planning tool, the CCA represents a coherent and joint diagnosis of the development challenges faced by Egypt and is the basis upon which the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is formulated. This CCA reflects the challenges that Egypt faces in today’s world, putting into context past, current and potential UN assistance.
From this perspective, the analysis that took place during the development of the 2005 CCA showed that Egypt has come a long way in terms of social, economic and developmental achievements over the past 30 years. However, such achievements cannot dilute the severity of the major social-economic disparities that characterize modern Egyptian society, and the report highlighted the fragility of some of these social gains. Egypt continues to suffer from the three principal human development deficits identified by the 2002 Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), namely in knowledge, freedom and the empowerment of women.
Chapter I sets the frame for the 2005 CCA, placing the analysis within the context of Egypt’s pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the fulfillment of the spirit of the Millennium Declaration.
In chapter II, the analysis explores the juxtaposition of Egypt’s macroeconomic growth with the pursuit of social and welfare gains, looking at how far economic prosperity has been translated into human capabilities.
Chapter III looks at the political and governance framework in which human and state capabilities interact and feed upon each other to furnish the nature and form of Egyptian society.
In chapter IV the range of analysis expands to look at the state of the natural resource base upon which Egyptian society depends for its survival, and the extent to which these resources are being managed to support human capabilities.
Finally, chapter V looks at the capacity of the state to manage the welfare of Egypt’s most vulnerable citizens.