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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Leviathan revisited
By Mariz Tadros
In an effort to underline its commitment to improving the human development profile of the Egyptian people, the government is now talking of the need for a new "social contract". Amina El-Guindi, Minister of Insurance and Social Affairs, cited four basic pillars on which this better life will be founded: meeting the basic needs of citizens; building up abilities and skills; assistance for vulnerable groups such as the handicapped and the elderly; and streamlining the channels of cooperation with civil society and the private sector.
President Mubarak with Atef Ebeid and Amina El-Guindi at the Conference for Social Development
To make this vision a reality, a series of programmes will be further developed , including the Social Insurance Pension Scheme, the Productive Families Scheme, promotion of women's social clubs, the Nasser Social Bank and special assistance extended to vulnerable groups, explained El-Guindi. Also on the list of priorities are the revision of the volunteer service programme, reform of the insurance system and the establishment of a coordination committee, made up of government, NGO and business community representatives.
The Ministry of Social Affairs is the principal provider of welfare assistance and is responsible for social assistance, as well as social insurance programmes.
The Social Insurance Pension Scheme allocates a monthly LE50 for families with no other source of income, targeting in particular orphans, widows, divorcees, children of divorcees, the elderly, spinsters above the age of 50 and chronically-ill bread-winners. One million families benefit from the scheme, said El-Guindi. Notwithstanding official announcements about millions being poured into social assistance programmes, the Human Development Report of 1998 indicates that the Ministry's cash handouts do not enable the needy to live above the poverty line and are not able to reach out to more than 20 per cent of the poor.
The same problem, according to the report, affects the contributory pension schemes, in which the recipient must have contributed money in the past to be eligible for a pension and which appear to provide inadequate benefits. Forty-eight per cent, or less than half of the pensioners under the Ministry of Insurance schemes, receive benefits that enable them to live above the poverty line.
The report pointed out that in order to alleviate the poverty of the 770,000 ultra-poor families, the financial assistance budget has to be increased to about LE340 million.
Prominent economist Galal Amin suggests that the only way a social contract can be taken seriously is for the state to take up the leading role in welfare provision, which is difficult given that it has to follow the IMF prescription for economic reform.
He suggests that the last time we had a social contract was in the 1960s when the state was committed to providing welfare services. "There is no sense talking about a new social contract unless one is sincere and committed", he said, explaining that the poor have already had to pay a very high price for the shift that took place with the introduction of the economic open door policy in the 1970s. "The last 15 years have witnessed an increase in poverty in absolute terms as well as a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor", he argues.
The government, for its part, affirms that its decision to give human development priority is reflected in the state budget. Finance Minister Medhat Hassanein told the conference that there has been an increase in government spending on social development, which represents no less than 40 per cent of total state expenditures and is equivalent to 52.3 per cent of its overall revenues. He announced that the education budget for the year 2000-2001 is LE18.2 billion, an increase of LE2.1 billion over the previous year. Allocations for health services stand at LE6.3 billion, an increase of LE1 billion over the previous year. The subsidy of basic foods is costing the government LE5.8 billion this year, an increase of LE500 million over the previous year. Social insurance allocations jumped from LE9.1 billion to LE11.4 billion and other social services were earmarked LE3.3 billion.
Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, a professor of political science, argues, however, that if social service expenditure is calculated in relation to GNP it will be found to be lower as a percentage than it was in the early 1980s. For El-Sayed, the current situation is not very promising: revenues accruing to the state are going to fall as a result of privatisation policies and low taxation of high income brackets. He also suggests that since Egypt is in the grip of economic recession, the possibility of higher allocations for social expenditure is slim. "Any responsible talk about a new social contract would imply that sources of funding for social development would increase, but recent data indicate a drop in the volume of taxes collected by the government," El-Sayed said. "There are also signs that the private sector is having difficulty paying back its debts to national banks."
El-Sayed went on: "We cannot talk about a new social contract without talking about addressing income disparities." He argued that the contribution of businessmen should not be limited to a few charitable activities, but should also aim at creating new job opportunities and improving working conditions.
El-Sayed is sceptical that the government's hope for businessmen to act as partners in development will ever come true. "The recent flight out the country of a number of businessmen after accumulating huge debts does not encourage the belief that the private sector is likely to honour the expectation that it play a leading role in promoting social development," he said.
Other than the private sector, the third partner in development, as envisioned by the government, are the NGOs. The NGOs are believed to be able to fill gaps in social development, which the government failed to address. Working papers submitted by the various governorates to the conference called for NGOs to play a greater role in the provision of services and in assisting vulnerable groups.
According to official statistics, there were 14,738 registered NGOs in 1996/97, 75 per cent of which were involved in social welfare and 25 per cent in development. Amani Kandil, secretary-general of the Arab Network of NGOs of the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, suggested that in the light of structural adjustment policies, more NGOs which were traditionally involved in charity shifted in the 1990s to the establishment of microcredit programmes, targeting women and young people specifically. Kandil asserted that the number of beneficiaries of NGO services is large, with the last health survey indicating that 17 per cent of those seeking health services resort to NGOs.
Nonetheless, the general perception of the role that NGOs can play in promoting development continues to be narrowly defined in terms of welfare services. Meanwhile, the role that NGOs can play in eliciting change is, at best, discouraged. Officials, for example, speak about NGOs providing shelter and rehabilitation for street children rather than working towards changing government policies and social practices in favour of those children. Many NGOs question whether the government really considers them as partners in the full sense of the word, rather than merely service-deliverers.
"Partnership would mean that as NGOs we would be invited to contribute to the policy-making process, and help change the process to bring about improvements in people's lives", complained one NGO worker.
Neither was the emphasis on the NGO role in social development reflected in the composition of the conference. Kandil was the sole NGO speaker and NGO participation was low.
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