Multidimensional poverty in Egypt: an in-depth analysis

The report “Multidimensional poverty in Egypt: an in-depth analysis” is published by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The report was written in partnership with the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation; the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS); the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

The first national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Egypt is an official measure of multidimensional poverty in the country. This report explores the national multidimensional poverty profile of Egypt, constructed using the Household Income, Expenditure, and Consumption Survey (HIECS) for the period 2021/2022.

The national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) analyses the way that poverty affects the population across 19 weighted indicators grouped within seven dimensions: education, health, housing, services, employment, social protection, and food security.

The report lays out the major challenges and priorities for policy action and discusses the effectiveness of social welfare programmes and macroeconomic policies in alleviating multidimensional poverty. The national MPI is aligned with ongoing initiatives such as Vision 2030 for Egypt, Agenda 2030 of the SDGs, Hayah Kareema (or decent life) programme and Egypt’s Human Rights Strategy.  The national MPI helps to highlight demographic differences, and plays a role in exposing differences between female- and male-headed households as well as gender disparities in deprivation profiles.

Highlights

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the prevalence, distribution, and severity of multidimensional poverty across Egypt. The overarching objective of the national MPI is to provide a comprehensive social policy framework, enabling policymakers to reduce poverty in all its forms. More specifically, the objectives include leveraging national MPI data to analyze multidimensional poverty’s extent, intensity, and distribution; prioritizing marginalized groups; identifying key indicators for effective poverty reduction; complementing monetary poverty measures; informing policies and social protection strategies; providing an updated policy tool for Egypt; and supporting comprehensive poverty reduction strategies.

Key highlights:

• In 2022, multidimensional poverty affected 21 per cent of the Egyptian population.
• The proposed national multidimensional poverty index (MPI) for Egypt spans 19 indicators across the following seven dimensions: education, health, housing, services, employment, social protection and food security.
• In Egypt, people are considered “poor” if they are deprived in at least two of the seven MPI dimensions, equivalent to 29 per cent of the weighted indicators.
• Deprivations in the dimensions of services and employment contributed by 19 per cent each to the overall MPI, followed by housing and education (15 per cent each).
• The proportion of people living in multidimensional poverty was much higher in rural than in urban areas, largely as a result of higher levels of deprivation in services in rural areas.

 

For more information visit the ESCWA website. The report and a related policy brief is available in English and Arabic.

 

Additional publications:

Arabic version of the full report: Multidimensional poverty in Egypt: An in-depth analysis
Policy brief summarising the report in English
Policy brief summarising the report in Arabic