Population matters

Population dynamics, including growth distribution rates, age structure, fertility and mortality, migration and more, influence every aspect of human, social and economic development. Countries need to be able to gather information about population, to track and analyze trends in order to create and manage sound policies and generate the political will to appropriately address both current and future population needs. UNFPA assists countries in every aspect of population and development, as needed, from developing capacity in data collection and analysis to participating in national, regional and global policy dialogue to supporting demonstrative programmes for purposes of up-scaling.

Egypt at a glance

Egypt is a middle-income country with a population of approximately 90 million and a gross national income of $2,600. In 2014, Egypt was ranked 108 out of 187 on the Human Development Index.

Following the 2011 events, the country experienced a transitional stage that was resulted in an economic downturn that hampered development efforts, with a particular impact on youth and women. The overall unemployment rate for 2015 was 13.2 per cent. One out of three young people (15-24 year old) were also unemployed.

The high unemployment rate among youth has contributed to a delay in the of age marriage. Youth are also characterized by low civic engagement – only 5 per cent were part of organizations in 2009, and low participation in policy making.

In consideration to all the above, the government held a National Population and Development Conference in November 2013 to analyze the factors behind that situation. The Conference concluded with the establishment of an inter-ministerial group coordinated by the National Population Council and tasked with developing a National Population Strategy 2015-2030. The strategy seeks to improve the quality of life of all Egyptians by focusing on four pillars; strengthening access to family planning and reproductive health, foster youth and adolescents’ health and civic engagement, advance women’s economic empowerment; strengthen girls’ education and finally deploy a mass media and awareness raising campaigns to support all of the above.

The National Population Council (NPS) has a multi-sectoral approach to ensure integration of services and efforts including government, private sector, public and private media institutions, volunteers and NGOs.

Programme Overview:

Population dynamics, including growth distribution rates, age structure, fertility and mortality, migration and more, influence every aspect of human, social and economic development. Countries need to be able to gather information about population, to track and analyze trends in order to create and manage sound policies and generate the political will to appropriately address both current and future population needs.

UNFPA Egypt Country Office offers support to the Egyptian government and other stakeholders within the field of population and development in Egypt. The objective mainly is to promote evidence-based national policies, national development plans and participation in international process that integrate issues pertaining to population and development. UNFPA Egypt Country Office’s main priority within the population and development programme is to support the implementation of the National Population Strategy 2015 - 2030 (NPS).This strategy has four pillars which are the following: Reproductive Health and Family Planning, Youth Development, Girl’s Education and Women’s Empowerment. The NPS seeks to address the balance between population and development by designing an inter-sectorial framework and implementation plan that will guide the governmental and non-governmental interventions.

Egypt’s situation:

Egypt is a middle-income country with a population of approximately around 90 million, 61 percent of the population are youth and a gross national income of $2,600. In 2015, Egypt was ranked 108 out of 187 on the Human Development Index. Following the 2011 events, the country experienced a transitional stage that resulted in an economic downturn that hampered development efforts, with a particular impact on youth and women. In 2012, Egypt’s population was estimated to be 83.7 million with 62 per cent of the population below the age of 29. The high unemployment rate among youth has contributed to a delay in the of age marriage. Youth are also characterized by low civic engagement –only 5 per cent were part of Civic Society Organizations in 2009, and low participation in policy making. The overall unemployment rate for 2015 is 13.2% (HDR 2015).

UNFPA interventions:

UNFPA is supporting the National Population Council (NPC) financially and technically for the implementation of the National Population Strategy 2015–2030.

UNFPA support will be implemented through the following:

The core of the work plan for NPC in 2015 and 2016 is to coordinate and facilitate for the full implementation of the National Population Strategy (NPS), to establish an operational results based monitoring system for the implementation of the NPS, to conduct the monitoring of the implementation of the NPS, to raise social and political awareness of the NPS and population and development issues in Egypt, and to strengthen the institutional capacity within NPC to conduct evidence based monitoring and transfer of knowledge through capacity building of NPC staff.
At the central level, UNFPA will support the development of an action plan and the costing of the NPS. Furthermore, UNFPA will support National Population Council’s work in coordinating and collecting input from different ministries and other entities at the central level. NPC will collect plans with budget from various line ministries to have an overview of the commitments of the line ministries at the central level to implement the NPS.
UNFPA will support the work of NPC in making population action plans at the decentralized level. NPC will assist the planning process in 3 – 7 governorates from 2015 -2016. NPC will assist the governorates to make sure that the planning process is inclusive and include young people, and to agree upon results based monitoring plan.
NPC will receive support from UNFPA to raise political and social awareness of population and development issues in Egypt, and to inform decision makers about the results achieved and progress made in the implementation of the NPS. The essence of the work plan of the NPC for 2015 – 2016 is to ensure that the National Population Strategy does not remain just a strategy, but that it becomes implemented.